Incredible AirPods Pro 2 sales ensure Apple's continued dominance of the TWS earbuds market

While the TWS earbuds market has seen steady growth over the past few years, the segment appears to have shrunk quite a bit in the last quarter of 2022, if a new report is anything to go by. Despite that, however, Apple continues to dominate.

In a report by analytics firm Canalys, the TWS market saw a significant 23% drop in shipments in Q4 2022—the first time the market has seen a decline since 2021. That said, though, Q4 2022 still saw shipments of 79.5 million units, a testament to the market's current size. Split into price segments, only TWS earbuds priced between US$200 and US$299 saw any year-on-year growth, with 87% of shipments in that price range being driven by Apple.

Speaking of Apple, the Cupertino-based company still retains complete dominance of the market, too. While it saw a year-on-year decline in shipments in Q2 2022, it still shipped 28.4 million units, accounting for a massive 35.8% of the market. The AirPods Pro 2, launched last year alongside the iPhone 14 series, pushed 63% of Apple's Q4 sales. 

Samsung sits far behind in second place, with just 6 million units shipped and a 7.5% market share. Xiaomi ranks third, shipping 3.5 million units to hold 4.4% of the market. boAt and OPPO round up the top five, with the remaining 45.3% share of the market outside the top five being split by the numerous TWS earbuds makers like Sony, Soundcore, Sennheiser, and the rest of the lot.

It's no surprise that Apple continues to dominate the market, as a combination of hardware quality, features, and a strong ecosystem guarantees sales of its TWS earbuds. This much dominance is a bit incredible, however. Going by the aforementioned numbers, for example, Apple sold more units of the AirPods Pro 2 in Q4 than the rest of the top five sold earbuds combined.

Buy the Apple AirPods Pro 2 on Amazon.