According to the latest Canalys estimates, Apple (including Beats) defended its leadership position of the the global smart personal audio market with the second-generation AirPods Pro launch, which led to a 34% increase in wireless headphones shipments and a 31% market share.
The global smart personal audio market suffered its second consecutive decline in Q3 2022, with shipments down 4% to 113.6 million units. True Wireless Stereo (TWS) remained the only category (including wireless earphones and wireless headphones) to show an increase, with 6% growth to 76.9 million units in the quarter.
Samsung (including Harman subsidiaries) took second place, but its shipments fell 15% despite its new Galaxy Buds2 Pro launch. India’s local vendor boAt took third place with a 5% market share, but its growth rate slowed to 50%. Xiaomi and Skullcandy came fourth and fifth with 4% and 3% shares respectively.
Market leader Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 launch gave the vendor a boost. It shipped 4.2 million units, accounting for 20% of all AirPods shipments.
Despite also launching its latest flagship model, beleaguered Samsung faced a different situation as Galaxy Buds shipments fell by 25%.
In Q3 2022, audio-centric brands, such as Sony, Jabra and JBL (under Samsung’s Harman subsidiaries), used aggressive discounting across channels to sustain shipment levels, significantly weakening the market performance of value-for-money brands. But these brands’ market value increases are relatively flat, which reflects the macroeconomic pressures that vendors are under. In Q4, market performance could continue to decline. As compared with last year’s shipment levels, Canalys expects that most vendors will be more cautious, hoping to avoid excessive inventory levels. Aggressive discounting will only ease the pain in the short term. Vendors must dive deep and expand their user bases while maintaining their current advantages to hold share and survive into the future.
MacDailyNews Take: Add up the other four vendors in the top five and their shipments total 17.5 million or 6.3 million short of Apple’s total TWS shipments. That’s dominance!
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