[Apple headset shipments declined for the first time, with market share falling below 30%. ]
[ From the perspective of the TWS market share, the top four companies account for nearly half of the market share, and there seem to be few opportunities for small businesses. ]
TWS (Global True Wireless Headphones), after experiencing strong double-digit shipment growth in the past few quarters, the growth rate has begun to slow down.
The latest global TWS market research report released by research institute Canalys shows that global TWS shipments increased by 6.4% to 58.3 million units in the second quarter of this year, the lowest growth rate in three years.
Apple Airpods sales fell for the first time
Although Apple headphones are still leading the personal smart audio market, shipments declined for the first time, and their market share fell below 30%. In the second quarter, shipments of Apple AirPods dropped by 25.7% to 15 million units, dragging down the overall growth of the TWS market. Xiaomi and Samsung ranked second and third in the TWS market with 5.3 million and 5.2 million shipments respectively.
According to data provided by Canalys to CBN reporters, Huawei's TWS shipments in the second quarter increased by 38% to 2.3 million units.
In addition, if calculated by revenue, Apple's overall revenue in the TWS market in the second quarter accounted for 54.3%, which is much higher than the second-ranked Samsung's 11.8% revenue. This is mainly due to the high unit price of Apple's TWS products. Huawei and Xiaomi's revenue accounted for 3.9% and 3.2%, respectively.
In the same period, the global smart earphone audio market grew by 4.7% to 99.8 million. In addition to TWS, these earphones also include headsets and neck-mounted earphones. The growth rates of the latter two reached 3% and 2% respectively, and shipments were 15 million and 26.5 million.
"Part of the reason for the sharp decline in Apple headsets is that the performance of the same period last year was too strong. Although the growth rate of the TWS market has slowed down, we believe that this may only be a quarter, and does not represent a downward trend." Canalys analyst Liu Jiansen It is believed that Apple’s ecosystem has a very high user loyalty and is one of the few smart device suppliers that have a stronger influence on content, and can combine the capabilities of software and hardware. "Hardware can create a unique experience." He also predicted that Apple's upcoming new generation of AirPods in the second half of the year will once again support the TWS market, but the installed rate of iOS devices may become bottlenecked.
The Canalys report also stated that since the end of 2019, Xiaomi and Samsung have been evenly matched in terms of TWS. "Although Xiaomi has made improvements in the value chain and provided more high-end TWS products, Samsung is also occupying the market by strengthening its own brand and sub-brand TWS products, especially through the JBL brand of the Harman subsidiary. "The analyst wrote.
In addition, the emerging brand Skullcandy, which has a strong performance in the North American market, has a market share of 7%, a record high, jumping to fourth place for the first time. Liu Jiansen said: "Skullcandy's success comes from its price strategy. A more reasonable price makes the product more popular among young people."
The "big business" of mobile phone manufacturers
However, from the perspective of TWS market share, the top four companies accounted for nearly half of the market share, and it seems that there are not many opportunities for small businesses. There are now very few companies that have poured into the TWS market in the past few years.
Go out and ask the founder Li Zhifei to confirm to a reporter from China Business News that the company has already withdrawn from the TWS business due to the fierce market competition. As early as 2019, I went out to ask about the launch of the second-generation TWS product TicPods 2 Pro, which was officially defined as "AI assistant at the ear".
Li Zhifei told the China Business News reporter at the time: “Headphones have become the best interactive device in the field of intelligent voice. In the future, there will be many ways of interaction that can be achieved through headphones, thus becoming an assistant for users to be online at any time.”
In Liu Jiansen’s view, three factors determine whether a product can enter the top three in the industry. The first is the attention to product details and whether it can give users a good experience; the second is whether the brand is strong enough; the third is the market and users. Whether the positioning can be found accurately. If you have these three characteristics, then consumers are willing to accept a higher-priced headset product. Mobile phone manufacturers have entered the TWS market one after another in recent years, and it is precisely to see the huge profits in this market. In the past few years, TWS has contributed huge revenue to mobile phone manufacturers.
Data shows that in 2020, Apple’s revenue from the AirPods product line will reach an astonishing $23 billion. According to Canalys data, Apple will ship about 97 million AirPods in 2020. Apple has recently increased its layout in the mobile phone accessories market, and is also optimistic about the huge profit margins of accessories.
Tianfeng International released a report last year predicting that the total shipment of Apple AirPods is expected to reach 120 million in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 28%.
Promoting AirPods sales this year is expected to be the new generation of Apple headset AirPods 3 that will be released in September. Although the performance is higher than AirPods Pro, the outside world speculates that the price of AirPods 3 may be cheaper than AirPods Pro. The current AirPods Pro is officially priced at US$249 at Apple.
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