S. Korea's wearable device market grows over 50% in 2020: data

South Korea's wearable device market grew more than 50 percent last year, industry data showed Tuesday, due to rising demand for IT products amid the pandemic-driven stay-at-home trend. 

Domestic shipments of wearable products, including smartwatches, wireless earphones and electronic wristbands, totaled 12.76 million units in 2020, up 50.7 percent from a year ago, according to the data from market researcher IDC Korea.

Wireless earphones accounted for 74 percent of the market with 9.39 million units last year, up 48.9 percent from a year earlier.

"With rising trends of online learning and work-from-home amid the pandemic, earphones became the essential item," IDC Korea said. "The market also grew with the expanded lineup of smartphones without a headphone jack."

Wristband shipments grew 53.3 percent on-year to 1.76 million units last year, making up 13.8 percent of the market, while smartwatch shipments soared 60 percent on-year to 1.6 million units to represent 12.6 percent of the wearable devices sold in South Korea, the data showed. (Yonhap)