290 Million TWS Headsets Were Shipped Globally in 2021

On Tuesday, Canalys updated its dataset showing that the shipment volume of TWS headsets in 2021 reached 290 million units, a year-on-year increase of 14.5%.

Apple ranked first in the world with nearly 93 million TWS shipments. Due to the delayed release of the third generation AirPods, its market share dropped to 32%, down 7% year-on-year. At the end of March, according to a source quoted by Nikkei, Apple cut their order for AirPods and reduced the annual output this year by more than 10 million units. The company is predicting only moderate demand and hoped to reduce inventories.

SEE ALSO: Apple Reportedly Lowers 2022 AirPods Production

Samsung shipped 28 million units of TWS headsets in 2021, up 19% year-on-year, ranking second and maintaining a market share of 9.6%. Xiaomi kept third place with more than 23 million headset shipments, up 3% year-on-year. Skullcandy’s shipments increased by 104% year-on-year while QCY’s shipments decreased by 13% year-on-year, ranking fourth and fifth respectively.

In the Chinese mainland market, the top five included Apple (19%), Xiaomi (17%), Edifier (13%), Huawei (11%) and QCY (10%).

In the Indian market, the top five included boAt (42%), realme (8%), Noise (7%), Boult (5%) and Samsung (4%). Realme officially released their Buds Air3 in March which are equipped with a newly customized digital noise reduction chip called the Realme R3 Chip. It supports 42dB active noise reduction and weighs only 4.2g per ear piece. Further, its battery has a capacity of 546mAh and is reported to be able to last for more than 30 hours before needing a charge.