Consumer demand for better quality music is driving growth of headsets and headphones sales in Southeast Asia.

According to the latest GfK findings, the headphone and headset market generated US$77.3 million across four key Southeast Asian markets in 2013.

Last year, consumers in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia snapped up nearly 3.8 million units of headphones and headsets – a notable growth of five per cent over the same period a year ago, expanding the overall market also by five per cent in total worth, finds GfK.

“Headset and headphones are largely used as complementary accessories to smart mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets these days,” said Gerard Tan, account director for digital world at GfK Asia.

Wired in-ear headphones largely continue to dominate in both value and volume, averaging at 55 and 77 per cent of total market sales. Generally, all segments rose in volume demand in the range of two to 30 per cent, with infrared/bluetooth achieving the highest growth. The infrared/bluetooth segment reported significant incremental sales in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, by 54, 78 and 106 per cent respectively. In value terms, the infrared/bluetooth and wired headband secured the greatest growth of 13 and nine per cent respectively across the four countries.

Although both headphones and headsets saw heightened demand in the past year; it was the latter that registered the larger surge across every one of the four markets. For this particular segment, Indonesia was the biggest contributor in both value and volume terms. Its headset market expanded by 30 per cent in value to attain sales of US$16.3 million – even more than Singapore’s US$16.1 million sales achieved.

“The market moving forward is set to continue expanding in value as users are more willing to splurge on better quality models; as well as in terms of sales volume resulting from the intensifying competition arising from the broadening repertoire of brands and models in the market,” concluded Tan.