The Canalys latest data shows that in the first quarter of 2022, earphone shipments showed continued growth, reaching 68 million. Apple took the crown ahead of Xiaomi with 32% market share, an increase of 14% compared to Q1 2021.
The report pointed out that although Samsung and Xiaomi have fallen back, they are still trailing closely behind. But they retained the second and third positions with 9% and 7% market share respectively.
"With the third generation of AirPods, Apple has focused on serving the needs of those looking for comfort and ease of use, and aimed to improve on the winning formula of its original AirPods design," said Sherry Jin, research analyst at Canalys. "However, Apple faces much tougher competition in comfort, sound quality, noise cancellation and affordability. It is challenging the spatial audio experience with improvements that are noticeable to the average listener and better integration of ecosystems to stay ahead." Despite its continued leadership in the market, the delay of the release of the third generation AirPods to the fourth quarter of 2021 has hurt Apple. AirPods TWS shipments fell by 11.4% to 86.0 million in 2021.
According to Canalys, headphone manufacturers Skullcandy and Edifier, ranked fourth and fifth respectively, with excellent sound quality and affordable prices, with annual growth of 53% and 24% respectively.
The top five TWS shipments in the Chinese market in Q1 2022 were Apple (16%), Xiaomi (15%), Edifier (12%), Huawei (11%) and QCY (8%). This shows perfectly that Apple's products are even more in demand in Xiaomi's home country. But this is only true for the earphone market, although it is also true for phones only fifth place brings you to the mainland.
