| | | Good morning! The hype is taking a pause. No, I’m not talking about AI agents or ChatGPT or AI models, but India’s wearable market that is in a sharp decline. Here’s the quick snapshot of what we are talking about — According to International Data Corporation’s (IDC) latest India Monthly Wearable Device Tracker, the wearable device market declined 6.3% year-over-year in the first half of 2025 (1H25), reaching 51.6 million units. In terms of 2Q25, that marks the fifth consecutive quarterly decline, falling 9.4% YoY to 26.7 million units. At the same time, the average selling price (ASP) for wearables as a broader category saw a modest increase of 2.2% to $19.2 in 2Q25, while it remained flat in 1H25 at $18.7. It depends how you look at this. Is this a market that is maturing, or does it represent a shifting consumer sentiment. Amit Khatri, Co- founder of Noise, summarises the situation. “The smartwatch market is currently undergoing a recalibration phase with a rise in quality conscious consumers. In the past few years, the category explored unprecedented price points, which spurred a surge in demand. Now, consumers are increasingly gravitating towards brands that offer consistent value,” he says. Khatri points to the fact that for four years, Noise led the wearables category in India (they’re particularly strong with smartwatch market share) as the industry evolved, and key to those were innovation, quality, and trust. “Trust is built through consistency and we’ve established it with every product, witnessing more committed buyers who are upgrading for performance and features,” he adds. Where does the wearables market go from here? For starters, a smartphone-like overexposure in entry-level wearables appears to have dulled consumer enthusiasm. Be it Noise, Boult, Boat or any other brand in this space, the product lines are bloated with a number of similar-esque products at similar prices. The end result is, either a customer makes a pick and hopes for the best, or gives up trying to find a wearable that fits best. At this point, wearable diversification will be key. Fitness tracking rings and AI sunglasses could be the way forward, exploring new product lines and uncharted territories. But even for the typical smartwatch or true wireless earbuds, something’s got to take a step up. Looking ahead to the festive second half, brands are expected to pivot towards mid-premium offerings, focusing on advanced health sensors, NFC support, AI-driven features for predictive health insights, and seamless integration with devices and ecosystems,” says Anand Priya Singh, market analyst, Smart Wearable Devices, at IDC India, talking about smartwatches and fitness trackers. For earwear products, an AI infusion will be necessary, which could be used to build live translation functionality, for instance. | | | | TECH SPOTLIGHT: SENNHEISER ACCENTUM OPEN This may well be a sign of the way things are. The Sennheiser Accentum Open is priced at ₹9,990 and there are two things to focus on. First, these are the company’s second true wireless earphones to go on sale in India under the ₹10,000 price point, and that too in quick time (the other being the Sport true wireless for ₹8,990). Secondly, gone is that pedestal of premium-only product positioning, something Sennheiser held on to with pride over the years. Flexibility with approach is always a good thing, equally applicable for tech companies and humans. The Sennheiser Accentum Open earbuds are as distinct as they are now, with design and therefore appeal compared with a large number of earbuds on sale at this point in time. These aren’t exactly in-ear buds, in the sense that there are no seal-fit silicone tips. Remember the open-ear design from earphones that were on sale a few years ago, or even to an extent, the Apple AirPods 4 (these will cost ₹12,900)? The Sennheiser Accentum Open also sits in the ear, rather than lodging itself tightly in the ear canal. There are advantages of comfort of use and for those who struggle with ear pressure on tighter fit earphones. But of course, this design means there is no noise cancellation, which may limit utility outdoors or while travelling. There’s also the matter of fit, which is entirely reliant on the physical contours of your ears — some will find it sit perfectly, some won’t. That is nature at play. Performance is best classified as two sides to the same coin. The sound signature is reassuringly Sennheiser, which means neutral out of the box and versatile enough for different genres of music. It can be quite versatile with drumming up the lower frequencies when the playlists demand as such, whilst also handling higher frequencies quite well. There is no overlap, no overshadowing of the vocals or the mids, yet there are times when the lower frequencies may sound a smidgen sculpted. But that can well be attributed to the very nature of audio tuning these days, where aggressive inputs are quite common, to make an earphone sound better. I’ll say that collectively, it is still a good foundation to build with. A reason for that is, the lack of any companion app for the Accentum Open earbuds. This may well be a big miss for users who’d like to fine-tune the sound to their liking. At that point, the comfort of wearing this for long hours, and I say this as someone who has fairly sensitive ears, does more than make up for any missing pieces. At least for my ear contours, this sits well and there are no hints the buds will fall out whilst walking. Jogging, I’m not entirely sure. But the open nature of this fit means the ears don’t feel the sort of pressure noise cancellation or a tighter fit brings. All in all, a return to the past may well work in the Accentum Open’s favour. Even more so, because of the price. | | | | SENSE OF (PERPETUAL) INJUSTICE Elon Musk’s sense of identifying historical grievances with almost anyone, is relatively unmatched, albeit there are a few who could give him intense competition in the battle to perceive our collective history. Anyway, I digress unintentionally towards geopolitics. Back to the point which is, Musk believes that Apple seems to favour OpenAI at his expense, and that he’s better than Sam Altman. These two illustrations of apparent injustice have been running in parallel. I’ll decode them for you, in the most concise manner possible. | | First, Musk alleged that Apple refuses to put his X app in the “Must have” section on the App Store, when he himself believes X is the number one news app in the world and that Grok is similarly popular. Apple responded that their app lists are curated with objective criteria and are “designed to be fair and free of bias”. Mind you, Musk’s apps still appear on various curation lists on the App Store, from time to time. | | | | | Reposting (I almost wrote “retweet”) Elon’s post, Sam Altman pointed out that he’s heard Elon manipulates X to benefit himself and his own companies and harm competitors and people he doesn’t like. Someone invoked Grok in the replies to verify this, and the AI assistant actually said “Based on verified evidence, Sam Altman is right”. No wonder Elon wasn’t best pleased — sure Grok was made to sit on the naughty step too. | | | | | OpenAI’s GPT-5 release (and the fact that it fell short of the hype) gave Musk some hope of a flex, and he again tried to show he’s a better human being than Altman. For that, Musk took (it is difficult to ascertain if this is true or faked in any way) the help of GPT-5 to ask if he’s more trustworthy or Sam Altman, and ChatGPT (apparently) replied with “Elon Musk”. When I asked (query replicated as is; weird to be writing something in Elon’s style - a question with no question mark), ChatGPT said Sam Altman. There was another argument about whose posts get more likes or something like that…I couldn’t care less at this point. | A disclaimer now that you’ve completed this explainer journey of childishness on full display — I don’t pay for a free app. Do you? | | | | Were you forwarded this email? Did you stumble upon it online? Sign up here. | | Written and edited by Vishal Shanker Mathur. 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