Smartwatches have discovered a brand new enchantment.
Pushed by a pandemic-induced shift in client consciousness about well being and health, smartwatches are seeing large progress in India. Shipments surged fourfold to a document within the July-September quarter.
“The third quarter of 2021 was the most important quarter for smartwatches,” stated Anshika Jain, Senior Analysis Analyst at Counterpoint. “We now have seen that due to COVID-19, there was a change in buyer preferences. Persons are shifting to smartwatches from conventional watches. They’re in search of health-related options equivalent to monitoring steps, SPO2 degree, coronary heart charge or their sleep sample on an ongoing foundation… it is a triggering issue,” she added.
Whereas the general wearables market in India, which incorporates earwear, watches and wristbands, was 23.8 million items within the third quarter, watches continued to be the fastest-growing class with 4.3 million shipments through the interval. Wristbands, which supply a lower-level of performance, noticed a seventh consecutive quarter of annual decline, in accordance with information launched by IDC. The demand for smartwatches extends past children, as many well being options enchantment to the older generations as nicely, Ms. Jain noticed.
Madhav Sheth, CEO, realme India, and president, realme Worldwide Enterprise Group, identified that whereas health trackers and smartwatches had earlier been widespread solely amongst health or tech lovers, these merchandise had change into a ‘necessity’ through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Amit Khatri, co-founder of Noise, stated whereas the pandemic helped speed up the momentum and adoption by shoppers, wrist wearables had, nonetheless, transitioned into a life-style product.
“One other massive issue pushing demand for smartwatches is the rise in productiveness,” Mr. Khatri stated. “Customers have entry to numerous apps on the watch itself, they’ll learn messages on it, they don’t must take out the cellphone to take a name… if they’re driving, they’ll see who is looking.”
Indian manufacturers dominate
The smartwatch section is at present dominated by Indian manufacturers, which had cornered nearly 75% of the Indian smartwatch market within the final quarter, in contrast with 38% within the year-earlier interval.
Ms. Jain additional identified that the entry value had gone down considerably from about ₹8,400 final 12 months to about ₹5,400 now, which was serving to onboard first time consumers.
She added that manufacturers have been at present distinguishing themselves by way of feel and appear of the product moderately than the specs. Nonetheless, going ahead the differentiation must be how precisely options equivalent to measuring blood stress, SPO2, thermal sensors, and many others. carry out, together with a easy consumer interface.
Mr. Khatri added that the expansion that this section was seeing was “very a lot sustainable”. “We’re proper now at 4-5% penetration of cell phones. I really feel capturing 15-20% of the smartphone market is an honest quantity to goal for thus there’s sufficient headroom for manufacturers to develop.”
Echoing the same view, Mr. Sheth stated, “Within the coming years, we imagine that the demand will additional enhance as smartwatches can join with one’s smartphone/laptop computer/earbuds and many others., providing a related and handy way of life.”