India’s wearable market registered double-digit shipment growth in Q4 2023, with a surge in smartwatches offsetting declines in wristbands and earwear, data from IDC showed.

Total shipments increased 12.7 per cent year-on-year to 28.4 million units.

The overall ASP declined 15.4 per cent $21.20.

Smartwatch shipments grew 54.9 per cent to 13.3 million units, accounting for 46.8 per cent of the total compared with 34.1 per cent in Q4 2022.

“Festive season sales and heavy discounts led to a 38.7 per cent drop in ASPs from $42.50 to $26.10,” IDC stated.

Wristband shipments fell 38.5 per cent to 32,700 and earwear 9.4 per cent to 15 million.

Earwear ASP declined 8.2 per cent to $18.20.

“Affordability, low product penetration and a plethora of options led to a surge in demand for smartwatches. However, the growing popularity of non-branded watches is impacting the incumbents, offering cheap alternatives of popular models”, IDC India market analyst for wearable devices Anand Priya Singh noted.

Vikas Sharma, senior analyst at IDC India, said the research company expects “single-digit growth for wearables” this year, with more smartwatches sporting LTE SIM and eSIM connectivity, “advanced health sensors and multiple GPS navigation”.

“In earwear, premium features like active noise cancellation and multi-device pairing will be available at affordable” prices.