IDC: Wearable Sales Declined in Q2
- Paul Thurrott
- Sep 20, 2022
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The market researchers at IDC say wearable sales declined in Q2, and they’re blaming everything except the quality of the devices. The firm claims that wearable sales fell 6.9 percent year-over-year (YOY) in the quarter ending June 30 to 107.4 million units.
“The wearables market faced another challenging period in the second quarter of 2022,” the IDC report notes. “Demand has slowed due to rising inflation, fears surrounding recession, increased spending on other non-tech categories, and the hyper-growth that the wearables market has experienced in the last two years.”
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IDC also expects the sales slump to continue thanks to rising prices and cooling demand, with the wearables market staying flat in 2022 with about 535.5 million unit sales. Growth will allegedly return in 2023, until it doesn’t.
Apple remained the biggest player in this market in Q2, thanks to its AirPods and Apple Watch product lines, but it has lost a lot of share: Apple accounted for 25 percent of the wearables market, down from 35 percent in Q4 2021 and 28 percent in Q2 2021. Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei, and Imagine Marketing (an Indian firm) round out the top five.