Anika Begay
India is the second-largest market for wearables after China. At one time, it was also the largest market for smartwatches. However, in Q2, wearable shipments in the country fell 10% year-over-year to 29.5 million units. The first half of the year, meanwhile, fell 4.7% to 55.1 million units, analyst firm IDC reported this week.
Market analysts believe that this decline could worsen in the coming quarters and place the blame squarely on smartwatches.
According to the survey, smartwatch shipments in India fell 27.4% year-over-year to 9.3 million units in Q2, down from nearly 12.8 million. Counterpoint separately confirmed to TechCrunch that its analysis showed the Indian smartwatch market fell as much as 30% year-over-year.
Earlier this year, TechCrunch reported that Indian smartwatch players were facing pressure from the sudden rise of unknown brands. Established names, meanwhile, failed to stand out in the market. Some have begun diversifying into other segments, including smart rings, to cash in.
According to IDC, the share of smartwatches in the overall wearables market fell to 31.5% from 39% a year earlier.
“Innovation fatigue or hardware exhaustion is the main reason why the smartwatch market in India is declining,” Vikas Sharma, IDC’s senior market analyst for smart wearables, told TechCrunch. “Most local brands are launching models without any new features.”
The top three players in the Indian smartwatch market are all domestic brands: Noise, Fire-Boltt, and boAt. All saw significant declines in Q2. The average selling price of smartwatches in India also fell to $20.6 from $25.6 a year ago, as brands cut prices to clear inventories.
But price cuts have failed to attract customers.
“Consumers are not interested in purchasing a new smartwatch or replacing an existing one due to poor differentiation in terms of features and limited innovation in the market,” Anshika Jain, senior analyst at Counterpoint, told TechCrunch.
Jain added that the appeal of smartwatches has primarily driven their hyper-growth in India in recent years. However, he noted that this growth phase is now cooling off as the initial enthusiasm for the segment is fading.
“This is also reflected in declining growth rates and a gloomy outlook,” the analyst said.
In contrast to simpler models, advanced smartwatches (with an app store and a full operating system) saw a 21.9% increase, with their market share rising from 1.5% to 2.5%, according to IDC.
However, the company confirmed to TechCrunch that Apple and Samsung saw quarterly shipments decline by about 29% and their respective market shares by 26%.
Apple captured 0.5 percent of the overall smartwatch market in India, shipping around 35,000-40,000 Apple Watch units in the second quarter, while Samsung had a 0.9 percent share with 75,000-80,000 units shipped during the quarter, the company said.
Sharma said that the decline in market shares of Apple and Samsung is cyclical.
“Samsung introduced new watches at the end of Q2 along with no bundle offers; also, thanks to online sales, people usually wait for offers on watches with higher price tags. For a while, Samsung had discontinued the bundle offer [that used to cost its smartwatches to customers at around $36 when purchasing with a flagship smartphone]”, he said.
The analyst also noted that the Apple Watch lineup will need to be refreshed, so the company has primarily focused on clearing out old stock.
The overall segment of advanced smartwatches has seen an increase in its share as some Indian companies have launched new models with Android operating system. This is full Android, not Wear OS, along with the Play Store. Some companies refer to the devices as “WristPhones” as they come with a nano SIM card slot and support voice calling.
However, IDC expects the country’s annual smartwatch shipments to decline by 10%. Similarly, Counterpoint believes that Indian smartwatches will see a double-digit percentage decline this year.
Headphone shipments flatten
In parallel with the decline in smartwatches, headphone numbers were flat in India, according to IDC, with 20.1 million units shipped in the second quarter. That represents 0.7% growth year over year. The true wireless stereo (TWS) segment grew 9.1% year over year to 71% share from 65.5% a year ago. However, wired (or headband) and over-ear headphones, which IDC lumps together, fell 16.1% to 5.8 million units.
Domestic brands continue to dominate the segment in India, followed by Chinese smartphone vendor Oppo and its sub-brand Realme. Apple (and its Beats subsidiary) and Samsung (including sub-brands JBL, Infinity, and Harman), meanwhile, accounted for 0.9% and 2.3% of total headphone shipments.
IDC’s Sharma told TechCrunch that the decline in the headphone segment is temporary, as demand for TWS earbuds continues to exist.
India also receives a significant number of non-branded earphones, available online and in stores. However, IDC does not track these units.
“The third quarter is going to be very big [for headphones] compared to Q2,” Sharma said. In contrast, smartwatches are not expected to see growth before 2026, at least according to Jain.
“In 2026 and beyond, we expect the market to recover, driven by new smartwatch use cases,” he said.
