sandalwood

Key Takeaways

Open-ear earbuds have become a structural growth pillar for the TWS market: from January to September 2026, TWS earbud sales value was essentially flat, while open-ear sales value grew 24% year on year — up for nine consecutive months.

The open-ear sales-value mix is moving upmarket: the above-RMB 500 band rose from 29% to 40%, with the RMB 1,000-plus segment now close to 30% of sales value.

Clip-style earbuds are driving growth across price bands: unit sales grew 63% YoY and sales value 84%, with the product mix extending from low-price volume plays to mid-range lineups and premium iterations.

01 Open-ear earbuds drive TWS growth and anchor sales-value gains

Open-ear earbuds are moving from form-factor innovation into mid-to-high price bands and multi-lineup competition.

With the TWS earbuds market gradually settling into competition for existing demand, the industry's growth focus is shifting from scale expansion to changes in product mix.

New form factors such as clip and ear-hook styles have opened up wearing and usage scenarios beyond the traditional in-ear earbud, making open-ear a growth direction worth watching.

In recent years, Huawei's FreeClip series has kept deepening the premium clip-style segment, lifting market attention for this form factor; Shokz and Bose, among others, keep broadening their open-ear lineups, while series such as Sanag S6S and Edifier Comfo Clip further extend the mid-range.

Open-ear earbuds are moving from form-factor innovation into mid-to-high price bands and multi-lineup competition.

Sandalwood's China e-commerce monitoring shows that in January–September 2026, China's TWS earbuds market posted a slight YoY dip in unit sales, steady sales value and an ASP up 5%. With volumes adjusting modestly while value held broadly flat, growth was driven mainly by the rising average price.

Over the same period, open-ear unit sales were roughly flat YoY, while sales value and ASP both grew 24% — clearly stronger than the TWS market overall.

Month by month, open-ear sales value topped the prior-year level in every month of January–September 2026, with growth ranging from 12% to 41%; nine consecutive months of value growth signals sustained structural expansion, not a reliance on single-month promotions or short-lived volume spikes.

02 Open-ear sales value trades up; the RMB 500-plus band now 40%

Open-ear sales-value growth is increasingly carried by higher-value products

By unit-sales mix, open-ear earbuds remain weighted toward low-priced products, though the share above RMB 200 is rising.

• RMB 0–200: volume share fell from 84% to 78%, still the market's scale base;
• RMB 200–500: rose from 12% to 15%;
• RMB 500-plus: rose from 4% to 7%, extending the expansion of the mid-to-high price bands.

The change in the sales-value mix is far more pronounced.

• RMB 0–200: value share fell from 48% to 36% — still the largest price band, but falling much faster than its volume share;
• RMB 200–500: rose from 22% to 24%, a steady climb;
• The RMB 500-plus bands expanded far more sharply: RMB 500–1,000 rose from 7% to 12%, the biggest step up in the value mix, while RMB 1,000-plus went from 22% to 28%, now close to 30%.

Set the two mixes side by side and the story is clear: low-priced products still carry the market's scale, but their contribution to sales value is declining; products above RMB 500, though still a limited slice of unit sales, are gaining value share much faster.

The open-ear market is moving step by step from low-price popularization toward mid-and-high-end mix upgrading, and sales-value growth is increasingly carried by higher-value products.

03 Clip styles: from low-price volume to multi-tier value growth

Clip styles are the main source of open-ear growth

Clip styles are the main source of open-ear growth. From January to September 2026, clip-style unit sales grew 63% YoY and sales value 84%. Competition is unfolding along a progressive path — low-price volume first, then mid-range lineups, then premium iterations.

RMB 0–200: the volume base, with growth from scattered sources. Baseus BC1 and Ruoshui Shisha OpenFeel MK2 both multiplied sales value several times over, serving lightweight wear, daily commuting and basic open-ear listening; SOAIY GD31 kept up rapid growth, and new entries such as Lenovo LK6 and Kinyo A5 Ultra add low-price supply.

RMB 200–500: a mid-range lineup takes shape. Sanag S6S Ultra grew sales value more than threefold YoY with an emphasis on sound quality and feature specs; Edifier Comfo Clip grew more than twofold, standing out on everyday wearing comfort. New entries including Edifier FitClip Ultra, Edifier Auro Clip and Baseus MC2S are shifting competition from single-model volume to multi-model coordination.

RMB 500–1,000: the mainstream upgrade band. Huawei FreeClip takes more than 40% of the band's sales value and grew strongly, with its clip design and open listening experience as the core selling points; Shokz OpenDots One E310 and Soundcore AeroClip grew in parallel, reinforcing sports wear and everyday open-ear listening respectively, while new entries such as OPPO Enco Clip 2 broaden supply further.

Above RMB 1,000: premium iteration. Huawei FreeClip 2 holds close to half of the band's sales value, with the Collector's Edition adding roughly a further 10%, extending clip styles toward a premium ecosystem and a high-quality experience; Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, JBL Soundgear Clips and Shokz OpenDots 2 E320 enter from premium sound, open-ear listening and sports scenarios.

Overall, clip styles now span a price gradient from low-price popularization to premium iteration, and the focus of competition is shifting from single-model volume to product portfolios covering multiple tiers and scenarios.