Apple sold 35 million AirPods units in 2018, strong growth forecast in 2019: Counterpoint

“A Counterpoint Research report states that the segment of true wireless ‘hearable’ devices such as AirPods can grow nearly three times in sales by 2020”

Apple seemingly had the clear lead in the segment of multipurpose true wireless earphones, or ‘hearables’, in 2018. A report by Counterpoint Research on the segment of such ‘hearable’ devices has stated that about 46 million hearables sold in 2018, Apple’s AirPods alone accounted for 35 million of those devices. Furthermore, this segment of devices is slated to grow at a strong pace, with sales projected to become nearly three times and stand at 129 million devices by 2020.

The growth of wireless accessories, along with a growing interest in such hearable devices, promoted by the rumoured launch of the second generation AirPods and similar products from Sony, Samsung, Jabra, Sennheiser and the likes, will strongly contribute to the overall sales of these products.

Peter Richardson, Research Director at Counterpoint Research, stated, “2019 will be the year that hearables evolve into an important market. During the year, major technology companies are expected to drive innovations in true wireless hearable devices. A rise in discretionary incomes of consumers and evolving digital habits are expected to propel the demand for hearables across the world as well. The global market for true wireless hearables is expected to reach US$27 billion in terms of value by 2021.”

Elaborating on the reason behind such steep growth potential for a class of audio-based accessories, Pavel Naiya, Senior Analyst at Counterpoint, stated, “Use of AI in voice tech is emerging as a new user interface with the many new applications. Around three out of four people now consider it as an important feature for future hearables purchase. It is a new user interface which needs a totally new ground-up development approach by the ecosystem players to make it more user-centric and feature rich. We believe it will evolve as an open ecosystem similar to the touch interface, following the natural process of evolution. The platform with maximum touch points along with better user experience is likely to win.”

Hearable devices, as stated in this report, are completely wireless units driven by the connectivity prowess and benefits of Bluetooth 5.0. These devices are primarily audio products, but can also provide a bunch of other utilities such as tracking movement, health features, triggering AI assistant features to make them wearable audio products — hence the name. The growth in this segment of devices is set to take forward the industry as a collective unit, in terms of activity and content providers, OEMs, component vendors (such as battery providers, chipmakers, speaker and sensor vendors, and more), and help all these companies scale their businesses beyond the saturating smartphone market.

It is this market saturation for which Apple, the market leader in hearables right now, begun looking at other avenues such as accessories and services to rejuvenate their falling numbers. The rumoured AirPods 2, which is expected to bring a host of other features beyond audio capabilities, is expected to be a major contributor to the escalation in sales in the coming years. Apple also led Counterpoint’s survey of most preferred brand for hearable devices among consumers at the moment, ahead of audio giants such as Sony, Bose, Sennheiser and Jabra.

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