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Apple's Beats sees explosive growth as AirPods reign continues in Q1

By Joshua Swingle

Published: Jun 06, 2022, 11:20 AM

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Apple's Beats sees explosive growth as AirPods reign continues in Q1

The iPhone 13 is the world’s best-selling smartphone, and the iPad is the world’s most popular tablet. The Apple Watch, on the other hand, dominates the smartwatch market, and new data shows that Apple leads the wireless earphones segment too.

Apple’s Beats lineup is increasingly popular

A total of 68.2 million true wireless earphones and headphones were shipped in the first three months of 2022, according to new information from Canalys. That result represents healthy growth of 17% compared to twelve months earlier.

Apple continued as the leading manufacturer and was the only brand in the top three to see an increase in shipments, reaching an impressive 21.7 million units in the quarter — an increase of 14% year-over-year.

The company behind AirPods and Beats headphones was able to secure a combined 31.8% share worldwide, down slightly from the 32.6% recorded in Q1 2021, but almost triple the share of its nearest competitor Samsung.

Breaking Apple’s results down by lineup, the launch of AirPods 3 seems to have made little impact with overall AirPods shipments remaining relatively stable at 19.3 million units, equivalent to 3% growth.

The company’s Beats by Dre lineup did the heavy lifting last quarter, with demand increasing an outstanding 553% year-on-year to reach 2.4 million units. Canalys attributes this to the Beats Studio Buds and Beats Fit Pro earphones.

Despite rumors a couple of years back about a potential discontinuation of the Beats line, Apple seems to have successfully used its sub-brand to target a different group of users, including those owning Android smartphones.

Whereas AirPods are marketed specifically to iPhone owners, the most recent Beats earphones are optimized to work with both Android and iPhones. Apple even went as far as using a Galaxy S21 to (briefly) market the Studio Buds last year.

Samsung’s share of the earphones market is on the decline

Sitting in second place behind Apple last quarter was Samsung. It managed to ship 6.5 million units in the first quarter of 2022, enough to secure itself a 9.5% slice of the global true wireless earphones market.

While it has widened the gap with third place Xiaomi, which posted a larger decline of 16% with shipments of 4.9 million units during the January-March quarter, both shipments and share are down year-on-year for Samsung. In Q1 2021 the company managed 6.7 million units and 11.5% respectively.

The lack of new product launches from Samsung likely played a role in the decline. The Galaxy Buds 2 arrived in August last year alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 3, but the Buds Pro are now over a year old and the Buds Live are approaching their second anniversary. The company has also yet to enter the over-ear headphones segment, in which Apple competes with AirPods Max.

Cheap wireless earphones are where it’s at right now

Samsung and Apple primarily compete in the premium earphones segment, but it seems that most of the recent growth is happening in the sub-$50 category that’s dominated by other brands like JBL and Skullcandy.

This growing trend contributed to the fall in the average selling price of wireless earphones in Q1 2022 — it dropped from $153 in Q1 2021 to $144 in Q1 2022 — although there’s a chance it could reverse in the coming months.

As Canalys notes, cheaper earphones are likely to be the first to feel the shock of rising costs and inflation. Demand in this segment could drop off sooner too, as people on tighter budgets reign in their spending quicker.

To sustain current shipment levels, Canalys speculates that some brands may try to target niche segments such as wireless fitness earphones and true wireless headphones for gamers.