Wearable: Apple vs. Xiaomi

Worldwide shipments of wearable devices reached 153.5M in 4Q20, a YoY increase of 27.2% according to IDC. Shipments for the full year grew 28.4% to 444.7Munits. Apple led the market once again with 36.2% share of 4Q20 shipments. Its Watch shipments rose 45.6% thanks to the appeal of three models with different price points (Series 6, Watch SE, Series 3). Xiaomi ended the quarter in the second position, growing 5% YoY. (Phone Arena, IDC)

As for the whole year of 2020, Huami Technology generated around CNY6.433B in operating income, indicating a YoY increase of 10.7%. The adjusted net profit stands at CNY294M. For the year 2020, the company shipped 45.7M units with a YoY increase of 8%. (Gizmo China, Sohu, IT Home)

TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has lowered Apple AirPods shipment forecast for 2021 by 30–35% to 75–80M units, implying a 10–15% annual decline. AirPods 1Q21–3Q21 shipments will decline by about 25% annually to 55M units, even if the market demand for the new AirPods 3, which is expected to be shipped in 3Q21, is better than expected, the 4Q21 AirPods shipments will be flat to 23M units in 2021. Annual AirPods shipments will also decline to about 78M units (vs. 90M units in 2020). (CN Beta, TF Securities, MacRumors, GSM Arena)