India's smartwatch market saw a record shipment growth of over 274 per cent (on-year) in 2021, and domestic brands led by Noise captured the market with over 75 per cent share, a Counterpoint Research report showed on Wednesday.
Domestic brand boAt captured the top spot in Q4 2021, which became the biggest ever quarter for smartwatches with over 8 per cent growth, according to Counterpoint's IoT Service.
"More than 86 per cent of the total shipments were driven by the under-Rs 5,000 price band, compared to 59 per cent in the previous year," said senior research analyst Anshika Jain.
Many of the features which were earlier present in the Rs 3,000-Rs 5,000 price band smartwatches are now found in the Rs 2,000-Rs 3,000 segment, like SPO2, blood pressure monitoring, voice assistance and larger display.
"Even features which were earlier prominent in premium smartwatches, like ECG and Bluetooth calling, can be seen in smartwatches priced under Rs 5,000," Jain added.
Although only 1 per cent of the total smartwatches shipped were domestically assembled, this number is likely to jump many times due to duty structure changes and government push.
"Indian players led the market by capturing over 75 per cent share. The top three brands captured two-thirds of the total smartwatch market in 2021, compared to just half in 2020. The market saw over 10 new entrants in 2021, intensifying the competition," said research associate Harshit Rastogi.
The market is estimated to grow by around 50 per cent in 2022 considering the high demand and brands' dedicated efforts to bring additional capabilities to their devices.
Noise led the market in 2021 with a 27 per cent share and over 278 per cent growth. Four out of the top 10 models in 2021 were from Noise.
boAt captured the second spot in 2021 with a 26 per cent share. Its Storm was the best-selling smartwatch in 2021.
Fire Boltt was one of the key new entrants in the smartwatch market. It quickly managed to capture the third position with more than 20 models across price bands.
Samsung grew more than 2x in 2021 driven by its most popular model, the Galaxy Watch Active 2. The newly introduced Galaxy Watch 4 series contributed to over 16 per cent of its total shipments.
Apple remained flat in 2021 with the Watch SE contributing around 44 per cent of its total volume. The refreshed line-up of Series 7 saw a great start with shipments crossing 100,000 units in Q4 2021, said the report.
(With IANS inputs)
