Apple’s AirPods continue to dominate the growing wireless earbuds market. This was, in part, driven the release of the AirPods Pro in October.
AirPods Claim 41 Percent of Wireless Earbuds Market
New research by Counterpoint detailed that AirPod sales hit 6 million units in the final quarter of 2019. That equates to 44 percent growth year-on-year. Overall, Apple had 41 percent of the wireless earbuds market during the quarter. In addition, Apple-owned Beats also had a small slice of the pie. Xiamoi came in in second spot following the release of the Redmi Airdots. Samsung was in third. Both firms had around six percent market share. In total, 51 million wireless earbud units were sold in that three month period, with 130 million units sold in the whole year.
Liz Lee, Senior Analyst at Counterpoint Research who wrote the report said:
We expect Apple to sell more than 100m true wireless hearables in 2020, including AirPods Pros, to maintain their comfortable lead in the market. The real competition will be for second place, especially in the premium market; Samsung, which sold 8m Galaxy Buds last year, will need further upgrades to those expected in the Galaxy Buds Plus, including noise cancellation and other advanced features and designs, in order to beat its rivals.