The wearables market has hit its first major roadblock after two years of hyper-growth, with global shipments declining 6.9 per cent year-on-year.
According to new data from the International Data Corporation’s Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker, shipments dropped to 107.4 million units over the June quarter.
IDC credits rising inflation, fears surrounding recession, increased spending on other non-tech categories, and the hyper growth that the wearables market has experienced in the last two years for the fall.
While top five companies — Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei, and Imagine Marketing — haven’t changed order, all but Xiaomi experienced year-over-year declines during the quarter, with the flood of affordable wearables bringing average selling prices down.
“It’s unfortunate that companies like Apple, Samsung, and Google are in the midst of launching more premium smartwatches at a time when appetite for high priced products remains in question,” said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers.
“And even though pricing on some new products remains the same as the previous generation, the strength of the US dollar makes the purchase more difficult in local currencies around the world.”
IDC has also issued a frosty forecast, with full year shipments to remain flat, at 535.5 million units. This is unlikely to last, thankfully.
“While the wearables market was down in the second quarter and will most likely be flat this year, it is certainly not out,” Ramon T. Llamas, research director, Mobile Devices and AR/VR at IDC explains.
“As the wearables market takes slow steps towards maturity, it will eventually reckon the ebbs and flows between the record-breaking volumes we saw during the pandemic and what we see today.
“But overall, the trend continues upwards, just at a slower pace as consumers seek replacements and the number of new users starts to decline.”
