boAt Leads India’s Wearables Market: Report

D2C consumer electronics startup boAt continues to lead India’s wearables market, according to a report by International Data Corporation (IDC).

The Aman Gupta-led startup secured a 32.1% share in Q3 2022, aided mostly by earwear devices. However, boAt has seen its market share shrink considerably over the last year; it had a 42% market share in Q3 2021.

boAt secured a 41.7% market share in true wireless (TWS) earphones as well. The startup also had the third-biggest market share in the smartwatches category, with a 19.1% market share.

Other companies in the top five included Noise, Fire-Boltt, OnePlus and realme.

This comes as boAt’s chief marketing officer (CMO) and cofounder Aman Gupta has repeatedly talked about the D2C electronics brand’s shift in focus from earwear to smartwatches.

At Inc42’s The D2C Summit 3.0, Gupta said, “We are doing well. We have invested in a lot of wearables [technology] and the next year, we will be focussing more on the category.” As of now, boAt’s website has a portfolio of around 40 smartwatches.

boAt recently raised INR 500 Cr (around $61 Mn) from an existing shareholder, an affiliate of Warburg Pincus and Malabar Investments, putting a hold on its IPO plans.

Wearables Market In India

Overall, the country’s wearables market saw a record 37.2 Mn units shipped in the quarter that ended September 31, 2022. This represents a growth of 56.4% year-on-year (YoY) in the market.

Interestingly, India’s wearables companies shipped 75 Mn units between January and September 2022. Thus, in the latest quarter alone, India’s wearables companies shipped as many units in the last quarter as in the preceding two quarters combined.

“Vendors continued to remain aggressive in their shipments to build inventory for the festive season (August-October) supported by high-decibel marketing and promotional activities across channels,” IDC explained the sudden spike in sales figures.

Smartwatch was the fastest-growing category within the wearables market. The segment crossed 12 Mn shipments in a single quarter, a growth of 3.8X compared to 4.3 Mn units shipped in Q3 2021. This spike was a result of a 30.3% decrease in the average selling price, going from $60 in Q3 2021 to $41.9 in Q3 2022.

Basic smartwatches had a 95.5% share within the smartwatches segment, having surged by 2.9X compared to Q3 2021. However, wristbands continue to go out of fashion as the shipments declined 80.8% YoY in the latest quarter.

“As smartwatches continue to be in high demand across varied customer segments, the need for better specifications/accurate monitoring will be key. We will see bigger screen size (1.8/1.99 inch), AMOLED display, physical or eSim connectivity in the affordable segment,” said Vikas Sharma, senior market analyst, client devices, IDC India.

The market research firm added that heavy discounting and offers also saw the average selling price decrease by 13.6% YoY.

However, the total wearables market was still dominated by earwear, which accounted for two-thirds of the total wearables category. TWS dominated the earwear category with a 57.6% share, while over-the-ear declined by more than 50% in Q3 2022.

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