India’s TWS shipments up 85% in 2022, boAt leads

India’s TWS market shipments registered 85% YoY growth in 2022, according to the latest research from Counterpoint’s IoT service. Increasing local manufacturing helped drive the shipments, apart from timely sales events, frequent affordable offerings, and entry of new players.

Commenting on TWS brands’ performance in 2022, Senior Research Analyst Anshika Jain said, “Four-fifths of the total market was captured by Indian brands, their highest-ever share. For the first time, the top five spots were taken by local brands, which captured two-thirds of the total TWS shipments in India. Moreover, the majority of the new entrants this year were local brands. Further, Mivi, with its entirely locally produced TWS portfolio, grew 544% YoY and grabbed a position in the top five for the first time.

Evidently, Chinese and global brands lost some of their share to the Indian players this year. Chinese brands captured a 13% share in 2022 driven by the good performance of OnePlus’ feature-rich devices Nord Buds and Nord Buds CE. realme and OPPO also supported the growth of Chinese brands. Global brands took an 8% share led by Apple, Samsung and JBL.”

Talking about the local production scenario, Associate Director Liz Lee said, “Domestic manufacturing saw rapid growth, contributing 30% of the total shipments in 2022, compared to just 2% in 2021. Key homegrown brands boAt, Mivi and pTron ramped up their local manufacturing capabilities to account for 73% of the domestic shipment volume in 2022. Other key players like Noise, Truke, Boult Audio, Wings, Gizmore and Play also manufactured made-in-India devices for the first time this year. Moreover, this increase in the shipment share of local production largely led to a drop in the ASP (average selling price) by 20% in 2022. More new launches in the low-price band (INR 1,001-INR 2,000 or around $13-$25) also contributed to the drop.”

Market Summary for Q4 2022

• India’s TWS shipments saw 44% YoY growth in Q4 2022 driven by festive season sales and promotions and growing local production.
  boAt grew 3% YoY to mark its tenth consecutive quarter of lead in Q4 2022, while Boult Audio stood second for the first time with an 11% share.
• The top five TWS brands in India were all local brands – boAt, Boult Audio, Mivi, Ptron and Noise. They accounted for two-thirds of the total shipments.
• In Q4 2022, Indian brands captured a record 84% share driven by boAt, Boult Audio, Mivi, Ptron and Noise.
  With a 4% share, the boAt Airdopes 131 remained the top model for the seventh consecutive quarter in Q4 2022.
• The INR 1,001-INR 2,000 retail price band (or around $13-$25) continued to fuel the TWS demand in India during Q4 2022 with an increased share of 75% in the overall shipments. boAt mainly drove the volume for this price band with a 45% share, followed by Boult Audio, Mivi, Noise and Wings.
• The premium segment (>INR 5,000 or around >$60) captured a 4% share this quarter, driven by Samsung followed by Apple and JBL.

CT Bureau