IDC: Number of earbuds and headphones delivered triples in a year

The number of earbuds and headphones supplied has more than tripled in the past year. That has been calculated by analyst firm IDC. Its popularity is due to the appearance of wireless earbuds and new headphones.

In the summer quarter, manufacturers supplied a total of 40.7 million copies of ‘earwear’, claims IDC. That is considerably more than the 11.9 million products in the same period a year ago. IDC lists Apple AirPods, Beats headphones and Samsung’s AKG audio products as popular products in that market. IDC puts earphones and headphones both under this category. The analyst firm points out that prices have fallen over the past year, which has increased popularity.

The audio products now make up almost half of the market that IDC refers to as wearables, which also includes smartwatches and fitness trackers. Shipments of these also increased, roughly doubling the entire wearables market, according to IDC. Apple is the market leader with a market share of 48.1 percent, followed by Xiaomi, Samsung and Huawei. Fitbit completes the top five.