Consumers are not warming up to buy a new smartwatch or replace an existing one due to low differentiation in terms of features
New Delhi: Smartwatch shipments in the Indian market stagnated for the first time with top three players Fire Boltt, Noise and Boat registering a decline of 11% in their market share in the January-March quarter, a Counterpoint Technology Market Research report said on Thursday.
Apple Watch shipment, however, grew three times in the premium segment, the report said.
Despite a 15% dip in shipment on a year-on-year (YoY) basis, Fire Boltt maintained its leadership with 28% market share. Noise market share remained flat at 24% on YOY basis despite a 2% dip in shipment.
Boat’s share dropped to 15% after a 24% decline in shipment.
“The overall market, which has been registering double- and triple-digit growth over the last couple of years, remained flat in the first quarter (Q1) of 2024 as some top brands faced difficulties in clearing their existing stocks. Consumers are not warming up to buy a new smartwatch or replace an existing one due to low differentiation in terms of features and limited innovation in the market leading to decline in combined market share of the top three players from 77% in the Q1, 2023 to 66% in Q1 2024,” Counterpoint Research, senior research analyst, Anshika Jain said.
Fastrack performed well, driven by improved channel presence and new model launches. beatXP’s shipments doubled as it focused on low-ASP smartwatches and targeted the entry-level segment.
“In the premium segment, Apple grew more than 3x due to continued demand for the Apple Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2. For Samsung, almost 50% of its shipment volume came from the Galaxy Watch 6 series,” the report said.
Counterpoint Research, research analyst, Harshit Rastogi said that the market is forecast to witness a double-digit percentage decline in 2024.
“However, in 2026 and beyond, we expect the market to recover, driven by newer use-cases in smartwatches. We will continue to see new users added to the category but at a slower growth rate,” Rastogi said.
