Connected objects experienced strong growth in 2020. Apple dominates the market far ahead of its competitors.
2020 sales of connected objects are up 28% with 444.7 million units. They were pushed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The strongest surge took place in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Connected objects are taking root in the high-tech landscape
Sales reached 153.5 million units. This corresponds to an increase of 27.2% compared to the previous year at the same period.
The curve has been pulled up by new products and low prices. Not all connected objects have benefited from this improvement. For example, fitness bracelets have declined by 17.8% and now represent only 11.5% of sales of connected objects.
In contrast, smartwatches account for 24.1% of PDM.
Apple at the top of the top 5
Apple stands out as the king of connected objects. It is far ahead of all its competitors over the whole year and in Q4 2020. In the fourth quarter, the Cupertino company seizes 36.2% of the market share.
Apple Watch sales jumped 45.6% driven by Series 6, Watch SE and Series 3.
Apple maintains its position for the year as a whole with 151.4 million connected objects sold and a market share of 34.1%. Its competitors are far behind.
Competition
In Q4 2020, Xiaomi comes in second with 13.5 million units sold and an MSR of 8.8%. The company is up 5% in this segment. If we rule out connected bracelets, its sales of connected objects increased by 55.5%.
It is experiencing a strong increase in the Asia / Pacific region taking advantage of the temporary weakness of Huawei. Xiaomi retains its second place if we look at the whole year with 50.7 million sales and 11.4% market share.
Samsung takes third place in Q4 2020, very close to Xiaomi. The company sold 13 million connected objects including 8.8 million ” d’hearables ».
IDC defines these connected objects as enriched devices with functions going beyond audio giving access to an intelligent assistant, health monitoring or an improved audio experience.
Its sales of connected watches, however, fell to just 2.9 million during the year-end period. Samsung is overtaken by Huawei for the whole of 2020.
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