Analyst: Apple Sold $6B Worth Of AirPods In 2019

Wearables are easily among the most exciting market opportunities for Apple, with CEO Tim Cook saying the segment is enjoying "explosive growth," reports USAToday.

Based on Cook's habit of measuring revenue relative to the Fortune 500, Apple's wearables revenue is now approximately $18.9 billion. The broader wearables market saw global unit volumes nearly double in the third quarter, according to recent estimates from market researcher IDC.

With 2019 winding down, Apple may have sold $6 billion worth of AirPods throughout the year. That could more than double in 2020.

In a recent research note to investors, Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi pegged Apple's 2019 AirPods revenue at $6 billion. The analyst believes that AirPods units could more than double to 85 million in 2020, bringing in $15 billion in sales next year. That would represent around 3.5% of Apple's total expected revenue for the year.

The tech giant released second-generation AirPods in March, followed by higher-end $249 AirPods Pro in October. Apple has also launched other hearables under its Beats brand.

However, the flip side of AirPods' incredible popularity and blistering growth is that sales could potentially peak soon. "Growth tends to slow down a lot once you reach the top of the curve, and AirPods are simply growing so fast today that they risk reaching the top in record time," according to Sacconaghi.

"Given AirPods' extraordinarily steep adoption curve and rapid saturation of the iPhone installed base, we see a dramatic deceleration in AirPods revenue growth by 2021 or 22, to single digit growth rates or possibly lower," the analyst wrote.