Canalys: Global wearable wristband market will grow by 7% in 2024

According to Canalys, a third-party technology market analysis agency, the global wearable wristband device market will achieve a moderate growth of 1.4% in 2023, with shipments reaching 18.5 billion units. The contribution of emerging markets is particularly significant, providing strong impetus for overall growth.

In addition, the diversified development of basic watches has also injected new vitality into the industry. However, excluding India's additional 15 million shipments of mostly basic watches, the decline in smart watches and basic bracelets will cause the global wearable wristband market to decline by 8% in 2023.

The wearable device market shows diversified performance

Under inflationary pressure and the complex economic environment in the post-epidemic era, consumer spending in Europe and North America has shifted from non-essential products such as smart devices to services. This shift has had an impact on the smartwatch market, resulting in a significant decline in smartwatch shipments in North America and Western Europe. At the same time, manufacturers such as Apple, Samsung and Google are also facing problems such as insufficient innovation and declining competitiveness, causing their shipments to fail to meet expectations.

In contrast, the basic watch market showed strong growth potential and became the only segment to achieve growth, with a year-on-year growth of 25%. Its growth is driven by a combination of factors. First, the Asia-Pacific region, especially India, maintains strong development momentum and promotes the popularity of basic watches. Basic watches are active in emerging markets due to their cost-effective product advantages, highlighting that wearable wristband devices still have huge development potential.

Chinese manufacturers play an important role in promoting the basic watch market. Xiaomi continues to innovate and expand its product portfolio, offering product options in multiple price segments globally, and its emphasis on integrating GPS technology into products in lower price segments and providing ecosystem connectivity for entry-level devices has strengthened its position in the market. At the same time, Huawei has strengthened its high-end product image on top of its overall product offering by improving design and material quality to enhance the appeal of basic watches.

In addition, manufacturers are actively pre-installing more applications on basic watches, especially in the Chinese market, which further blurs the boundaries between smart watches and basic watches for consumers. These "smarter" basic watches are not only feature-rich, but also affordable and meet the daily needs of most consumers. These strategic moves have greatly improved the global competitiveness of Chinese manufacturers, pushing Xiaomi and Huawei to become the top three in 2023, following Apple.

Chinese manufacturers actively embrace Wear OS and seize the smart wearable market

More and more Chinese smartphone manufacturers choose to use the Wear OS platform, marking that 2024 will become a key step in the expansion of Wear OS Year. For example, Xiaomi and OnePlus have entered the European market by launching smartwatches equipped with Wear OS, providing consumers with cost-effective options while posing competitive pressure on Samsung and Google.

Chinese manufacturers hope to use the Wear OS platform to further develop the mid-to-high-end smart watch market and provide a better development environment for the Android device ecosystem. However, in order to maintain development momentum in the international market and smartwatch field, manufacturers must continue to upgrade and innovate application scenarios, connectivity, health and exercise tracking, and design. These efforts are critical to staying competitive in a rapidly changing market.

Innovation will lead a new chapter in market recovery

Looking to the future, innovation will become the core driving force for the revitalization of the wearable market. The booming development of AI-driven, health monitoring and outdoor devices will become key factors leading market growth and push the wearable market to new heights.

Canalys is cautiously optimistic about the wearable wristband market in 2024, predicting 7% growth. In the short term, the overall market still faces a series of challenges, including restoring shipments and promoting global expansion, especially AI integration. Since AI is still in the exploratory stage, it requires cooperation and market testing from all parties. At this critical moment full of changes and opportunities, manufacturers must maintain strategic flexibility, actively seek innovative breakthroughs, and constantly accumulate practical experience to respond to new changes and new needs in the market.

In the short term, the basic watch market continues to show strong growth potential as manufacturers actively explore product positioning in multiple fields such as health monitoring, sports tracking and daily interaction, and improve product value and profitability through optimized design and materials. . With the in-depth integration of advanced technologies such as AI and the increasingly sophisticated health monitoring functions, smart watches will demonstrate better system performance and a wider range of application scenarios.

Canalys predicts that by 2025, the overall shipments of wearable wristband devices are expected to reach 217 million units, of which smart watches will grow faster than other wearable wristband categories.

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