Apple dominates hearables market in Q4 2018 with AirPods: Counterpoint Research

“The AirPods which were earlier frowned upon for their design are now seen as a style statement”

Apple is dominating the global wireless earbuds industry as the tech giant has garnered a whopping 60 percent market share in the fourth quarter of 2018, says the latest report from Counterpoint Research. According to the firms’ study, 12.5 million wireless headphones were shipped globally in the quarter, with North America contributing the highest to the overall market with 24 percent volumes. Apple’s AirPods were, by far, the most sold wearables, especially on Apple’s home turf and Asia Pacific, excluding China.

Apple could have eked out a bigger share were it not for customers anticipating the new AirPods launch in 2019. Behind AirPods, came other premium products such as the Jabra Elite Active 65t, Samsung Gear IconX, and Bose SoundSport Free, respectively. However, as can be seen in the infographic, other mid-range products made the top ten list as well. Another factor that kept Apple from completely dominating sales was the emergence of second-tier brands, such as JLab and QCY that gained considerable market share with their $100 priced products like the Lab JBuds Air True Wireless and QCY T1.

Region-wise, Apple didn’t perform as well in Europe as it did on its homeland being outperformed by Jabra which was the biggest competitor with a 14 percent market share. Asia Pacific was also a good market for the Cupertino giant with Asian brands like Britz and GLIDiC also showing good potential. China posed the biggest challenge amongst all markets with local brands like QCY, Honor, Edifier, and ENKOR showing strong performance in the region.

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