(Source: Mike Mozart/flickr)
The internet of things is poised to take off in India. The International Data Corporation reported on Wednesday that the wearables market in India in the first quarter of 2016 was largely driven by fitness bands. Of over 400,000 units sold in India, 87.7% of the shipments were fitness bands, and smart wearables (what the IDC defines as “any wearable that can run third-party applications”) clocked in at 12.3%.
FitBit and Apple are the two brands primarily represented in India in physical stores, but online sales were the most preferred means for the majority of vendors. And Raj Nimesh, Senior market analyst at the IDC, noted that the fitness bands are increasinly popular purchases in urban areas with higher disposable incomes.
Xiamoi came out on top, nabbing 27.1% of the market share in Q1 2016. GOQii, FitBit, Samsung, and Motorola followed respectively.
These figures speak to the general rise in wearable shipments around the world, too. In May, the IDC reported that total shipment volumes of wearables reached 19.7 million units in the first quarter of 2016 — an increase of 67.2% from the 11.8 million units shipped in the first quarter of 2015.
Even though wearable penetration is lower in India than in other markets like the U.S. and China, growth is only expected to rise. India’s connectivity rates continue to improve, and manufacturers are looking at affordability and quality for the Indian market. Multiple reports and forecasts have noted that the internet of things is waiting to explode in India. Last year Blouin News reported on its projected 2020 $15 billion market, and how Samsung is set to gain a strong foothold in the IoT market in the country. Fitness bands make up most of the wearables market now, but the next five years could bring expansion to a host of other IoT technologies.
