File Photo (NBD)

March 23 (NBD) -- Smartwatches have been gaining popularity in recent years, as they are able to record exercise and monitor sleep at an affordable price. However, the demand for smart bracelets has been waning, as indicated by a recent report from the International Data Corporation (IDC).

According to the report, shipments of global wearable devices decreased by 18.9% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2022, reaching 138.7 million. For the whole year of 2022, shipments decreased by 7.7%, marking the first decline in the category. In China, domestic sales of wristwear devices were 44.55 million in 2022, a year-on-year decrease of 13.0%. Among them, 12.76 million smart bracelets were sold, a year-on-year decrease of 27.1%, representing the largest decline in three years and accounting for less than one-third of the total shipments of wristwear devices.

According to a supply chain executive, the cost of a basic smart bracelet is about 40 yuan. If only one mode is opened and the sale (expected to be one or two hundred thousand) can cover the cost. Overall, the profits of smart bracelets and watches are very slim now, and the profit for both medium-to-high-end and low-end products is only several yuan a unit.

A field visit to Huaqiangbei, one of the largest electronics wholesale markets in the world and an "indicator" for China's electronics market, revealed a further decline in smart bracelets. NBD found that apart from mobile phone brand boutiques, even the aggregators of electronics products like Gome had no traces of such a product. Staff from both retailers said that there were no smart bracelets in their stores, only smartwatches. It seems that in the past two years, fewer and fewer people are wearing smart bracelets.