Recently, IDC released the ‘China Wearable Device Market Quarterly Tracking Report – Q2, 2020’. The data from this report shows that China’s wearable device market shipments were 26.58 million units. This is a year-on-year increase of 4.1%. Shipments of basic wearable devices (wearable devices that do not support third-party applications) were 22.24 million units. Thus, this indicator has got a year-on-year increase of 6.1%. And the true smart wearable devices shipped 4.35 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 4.9%.
Also Read: IDC: Chinese Wearable Market Shrinks In Q1 2020
With the sports watch GT2 and the true wireless headset Freebuds 3, Huawei has not only increased its market share in watches and Bluetooth headsets markets but also consolidated its top position in the overall wearable device market. Although Xiaomi still holds the leading position in the bracelet market, new bracelet products have limited impact on overall performance. For example, the Mi Band 5 has a small contribution to shipments this quarter due to its late launch time. And Xiaomi’s Bluetooth headset product line is in the new product switching period. So there has been no innovation this time.
Apple ranked third in the second quarter. The AirPods and Apple Watch series products were driven by the June promotion season. The accumulated demand in the first half of the year was further released and shipments continued to grow.
How the Wearable Device Market Changed in China?
In the second quarter of 2020, with the exception of the children’s watch market, most product lines in China’s wearable device market have recovered significantly. And the market for Bluetooth headsets and adult watches even significantly exceeded the market size of the same period last year.
There is a gradual slowdown in the market growth of wristbands. The smartwatches, with their advantages such as optimized battery life and diversified functions, have developed strong momentum.
Driven by watch products, wrist-type wearable devices have shown a booming growth momentum in the consumer market. The upgrade of sensor and algorithm technology not only continues to attract more users but also promote monitoring data. On the basis of diversified types, it provides more possibilities for future service expansion in sports, health and even medical treatment. The linkage between the wrist-type wearable device market and the sports, health and medical industries will become an important direction for enhancing the added value of equipment and expanding equipment marketing channels.
IDC China Research Manager Pan Xuefei believes: ‘In the post-epidemic era, sports, health, and medical care have become important development directions for wearable devices. While social events promote the natural growth of demand, manufacturers’ cultivation and guidance of demand are also important. On the basis of hardware function expansion, service expansion around sports, health and medical sectors can not only enhance the added value and professionalism of hardware functions, but also drive market growth from the software application level.’
