Smartwatch Market Grows 24% YoY in 2021

According to the recently Global Smartwatch Model Tracker report published by Counterpoint Research, in 2020 global smartwatch shipments barely increased due to COVID-19, but in 2021 they grew at once by 24% year on year. In the fourth quarter alone, over 40 million units were shipped, the highest quarterly figure ever.

Sujong Lim, Deputy Director of Counterpoint Research, said: “The global smartwatch market’s good growth in 2021 is meaningful in itself, but it is more meaningful in that it makes us look forward to future growth. With their ability to monitor important health parameters like blood pressure, ECG and SPO2, these devices are becoming popular. Further, the attractiveness of smartwatches as independent wearable devices will increase if more of them start supporting cellular connectivity.”

The top 5 smartwatch vendors in 2021 are Apple, Samsung, Huawei, imoo and Amazfit. Interestingly, Apple maintained its lead with a 30% market share but reduced its share by 3 percentage points due to increased competition. At the same time, the average price of its devices increased by 3% (without the release of the SE model in 2021). As a result, Apple accounted for half of the total market revenue.

India has become one of the main growth drivers for the smartwatch market in 2021. In 2020, the Indian smartwatch market accounted for just 3% of the global market, but it has quadrupled in 2021 and increased its global market share to nearly 10%.

Senior Research Analyst Anshika Jain said, “Noise is the No.1 Indian smartwatch brand and leads the growth of the local market. It captured the top position in 2021 due to its diverse product portfolio targeting the budget and mid segments, as well as strong partnerships with e-commerce players, financial institutions and celebrities. Noise also focused on community building and slightly shifted its price base towards the lower side to make its smartwatches accessible to a larger group of people, a strategy that proved to be effective. All this resulted in Noise ranking third in terms of shipments after Apple and Samsung in the APAC region except China in 2021.”