True Wireless Earphones, Smart Speakers Reviving Audio Interest, Says Report
Renewed interest in music consumption and tech advances are driving increased demand for consumer audio hardware, said a Wednesday Futuresource report. The market for home audio hardware and headphones grew to $50.8 billion in 2019, from $47.5 billion the prior…
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year, it said. The researcher estimated a 37 percent rise in headphone volume for 2019, up from $22.7 billion in 2018, as the price consumers are willing to pay for headphones continues to rise -- up 32 percent year on year in October to $74. With AirPods, Apple created a new subcategory and a market for copycat designs, said analyst Luke Pearce, saying the true wireless category will grow by 25 percent year on year through 2023. The total in-ear segment now is over two-thirds of aftermarket headphone shipments. A recent Futuresource survey in the U.S., U.K., Germany, China and Japan showed 69 percent of consumers regularly use two or more pairs of headphones. A crossover with hearing aids is creating a market for smart hearable products that can amplify and enhance speech while filtering out ambient background noise, Pearce said. The home audio market grew 21 percent to 111 million units Q1-Q3 vs. the comparable 2018 period, said Pearce. Wireless speakers led growth, up 25 percent year on year; wireless speakers with screens had a 894 percent shipment spike. Sound bars grew 7 percent, while hi-fi shipments dropped 9 percent. Smart speakers will be more than half of global wireless speaker sales 2019-2023, it said. The U.S. market had just under half of smart speaker shipments last year, followed by China and the U.K.