Global AirPods shipments fell by a third in Q3, according to a new market intelligence report today. The figures for Apple include Beats products, but the greatest fall is likely to have been for AirPods, as consumers waited for the third-generation model.
However, Apple’s dominance of the true wireless stereo (TWS) headphones market is so great that no other brand came anywhere close to challenging the company’s lead …
Canalys defines the TWS market as in-ear headphones without any connecting hardware. This means, for example, that AirPods and AirPods Pro quality – along with PowerBeats Pro – but Beats Flex don’t.
The report says that the TWS market as a whole grew slightly, while Apple and Beats sales fell dramatically.
Globally, the TWS category barely grew, up by just 1.3% to reach 72.2 million units. This was insufficient to offset the decline of wireless headphones and wireless earphones, which decreased by 4.7% and 4.9%, respectively.
Apple maintained its leading global position in TWS, shipping 17.8 million units, but its shipments declined by nearly a third compared with a year ago, due to a significant drop in demand as consumers waited for the third-generation devices.
After a lengthy wait, Apple finally launched AirPods 3 in October.
During its October special event, Apple finally unveiled the third-generation of its popular wireless earbuds. AirPods 3 features a new design based on AirPods Pro, but this time with a universal fit and Spatial Audio support […]
Apple has increased battery life to up to 6 hours on a full charge, and AirPods 3 now officially supports Find My network and MagSafe charger.
Customers waiting for the new model saw Apple’s Q3 market share fall from 37.6%, to 24.6%. However, that still left Apple with more than twice the share of its nearest rival, Samsung, at 12%.
Samsung, backed by a strong performance from the debut of the Galaxy Buds2, and the latest additions from JBL’s TWS entry-level lineup, regained second place. Xiaomi, which has yet to scale up its affordable Redmi lineup after pivoting its focus to higher-value devices, moved to third place. India’s local king, boAt, broke into the top five for the first time, shipping 2.8 million units. Edifier was close behind with 2.7 million units.
Canalys says that the current quarter is expected to turn things around.
Together with the release of the third-generation AirPods, the global TWS market is expected to return to robust growth in Q4 in time for the holiday season.
Photo: Sophia Stark/Unsplash
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