Research firm Canalys expects wireless earphones and wireless headphones – ‘the smart personal audio device market’ – to have a very big 2020. “In Q3 2019, the worldwide smart personal audio device market grew 53% to reach 96.7 million units. And the segment is expected to break the 100 million unit mark in the final quarter, with potential to exceed 350 million units for the full year,” claimed Canalys. The biggest category within this market is ’True Wireless Stereo’ earphones, with 43m of them shipped in the third quarter of 2019 alone – Apple’s AirPods being the biggest product in that sector.

Music Ally's Head of Insight More by Stuart Dredge