Boat leads true wireless headphone market in India followed by Realme, Samsung others

India's truly wireless stereo (TWS) market grew about 75 percent to 20.3 million units in 2021 on a year-on-year basis with homegrown brand Boat taking the lead, International Data Corporation's (IDC) India Monthly Wearable Device Tracker said on Monday. The shipment of TWS in the December 2021 quarter grew 122 percent compared to the December 2020 quarter.

"India's TWS market witnessed a record year, shipping 20.3 million units with a healthy 74.7 y-o-y growth in 2021. "The pandemic-driven use cases continued to generate the demand for smart audio devices, with tripled shipments y-o-y in the first half of the year.

"Festive discounts, competitive pricing, multiple launches, and new entrants led to strong adoption in the latter part of the year," IDC said. According to the report, imagine marketing, which sells under boat and edict brand name, maintained its position as the market leader with a growth of 187.9 percent on a y-o-y basis capturing 39.3 percent in 2021.

Realme retained its second position with 7.7 percent, Nexxbase (Noise) surpassed Samsung to grab the third position with 7.5 percent share and 194.7 percent growth in 2021. Palred (pTron) finished fourth with a six percent share and Samsung, which includes devices from Samsung, JBL, Infinity, and Harman Kardon secured the fifth position with 4.7 percent market share, according to the report.

"Affordability, availability, and appealing aesthetics are the key drivers for the TWS market as a must-have complementary device for a smartphone. "With increased awareness, consumers will continue to migrate from wired to wireless devices and upgrade to devices with better sound experience, longer battery, and comfort," Ekta Mittal, market analyst (client devices) at IDC India, said.