Wearable equipment is difficult to ground gas is still only a concept within five years

At the just-concluded 2014 International Consumer Electronics Show and the geek park innovation conference held in Beijing at the same time, wearable devices became hot spots, most of which were connected with smart phones, not only transplanted basic functions such as mobile phone text messages, but also realized Some mobile internet applications. The industry pointed out that due to technical breakthroughs, application and market training period is long, and wearable equipment may be difficult to weather in the next five years.

The concept of "smart" has been heated up

In general, a smart wearable communication device refers to a portable device that is worn on the body or integrated into the user's clothes or accessories. It is not only a hardware device, but also intelligent through software support, data interaction, and cloud interaction.

Recently, at the innovation conference held by the domestic innovator community “Geek Park”, only a dozen watches were exhibited in smart watches and bracelets, mostly from the entrepreneurial teams in Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Qingdao. They are often connected to smartphones via App (application software), Bluetooth or NFC (Near Field Communication Technology) as the second screen or accessory function of the smartphone.

Previously, including Samsung, Sony and Shanda Shell, TCL, Jin Lijun have released smart watch products in the domestic market, adding mobile phone calls, viewing text messages, photos, time reminders and other functions to the smart watch.

In this regard, Qian Jiang, co-founder of Tuman Technology, a smart watch research and development company in Beijing, admitted in an interview with Beijing Business Daily that, unlike smartphones, the concept of wearable devices has the characteristics of fragmentation and diversification, due to the users of watches. With a wide group and relatively low technical threshold, it is the first hot battlefield in the field of wearable devices.

The smart wristband represented by the Jawbone UP bracelet mainly caters to the trend that consumers are paying more and more attention to their health and sports. In addition, the banner of "smart wearable devices" is further extended to areas such as scales, sphygmomanometers, and home lighting.

Experts in the industry pointed out that the current wearable devices that manufacturers are still only sticking to the extension of the basic functions of smart phones are not really meaningful wearable devices. The market for wearable devices should be developed in scale, and it is inseparable from the back. Support for data, cloud computing, and application ecology, and it is clear that most vendors are not qualified.

Technical availability is not mature

Wearables are one of the hottest topics of recent times, but they are not favored in the consumer market because their usability is far from mature, and technical problems, application ecology and other issues have not been resolved.

Gong Bin, CEO of Bosi Consulting, pointed out that the usability of wearable devices is not fully exploited at present. In terms of operation mode, it still relies on touch operation, and some gestures such as somatosensory operation and interactive operation are on smartphones and tablets. The application is not satisfactory, let alone wearable devices.

In addition, battery life has become an important shortcoming for smart devices. Beijing Business Daily reporter learned from a number of manufacturers engaged in the development of smart watches that the battery of the product can be used for up to two days. Users often need to charge once a day, which does not bring convenience to life. To improve this problem, chip manufacturers need to provide ultra-low power processor support, but it is still difficult to achieve.

Many consumers question the radiation of wearable devices because wearable devices are in direct contact with the human skin for a long time, or the radiation hazard to the human body is higher than that of smart phones. In particular, there are a number of manufacturers for wearable products such as the elderly, children and other vulnerable groups, such as positioning for anti-missing, health monitoring, etc. How to minimize radiation damage is also an important problem facing hardware manufacturers.

More importantly, smart wearable device products require a new ecosystem support, and a development platform suitable for the characteristics of wearable devices is needed to expand the number and quality of applications. It takes a long time to build this system.

Some observers pointed out that the technology giant Apple began to develop smart wearable device products earlier, and even hired some professional designers in the fashion industry and luxury goods industry, hoping to make wearable products into a fashion that can be integrated with people's clothing and image. The product, but has not launched the product until today, this aspect shows that Apple is not ready, on the other hand, it proves that the market conditions of wearable devices are not mature, so it is cautious.

User market training period

“Everything is not ready, Dongfeng is blowing.” Gong Bin describes the current market for smart wearable devices. He pointed out that capital market and hardware manufacturers in this field are very enthusiastic now, but the most important part of the market - consumers are very cold, that is, wearable devices are dispensable for consumers. Status, demand is not strong.

In this regard, Beijing Business Daily reporter also interviewed more than 50 consumers at the Geek Park Innovation Conference. Their life background, occupational category, age, etc. are different. More than 60% of consumers expressed their opinions on smart watches. Not interested, the reason they give is mainly "not needed".

One of the representative Mr. Zhang bluntly said: "The role of smart watches is basically coincident with the mobile phone. Just call and answer the phone. It always feels weird to call the watch. The quality of the call is not guaranteed. Other images Playing games and taking pictures is even worse than the experience of a smartphone."

Wearable devices don't have much appeal to mass consumers, but are limited to non-mainstream technology enthusiasts such as Geeks or a relatively niche market in terms of fashion, and mass consumers are aware of wearable device products. Accepting the process of needing a training, it takes at least three years to be optimistic.

According to statistics released by market research firm Juniper, the global shipment of wearable devices will reach 130 million units by 2018, 10 times that of 2013, and the wearable device market will usher in an explosion. Prior to this, however, the wearable device market has a longer incubation period.

Another expert believes that the current smart wearable devices are not as good as imagined, and the business model is not clear. Influx into this field requires strong support from funds, R&D personnel and technical resources. Some small and medium-sized teams blindly involved in it must It is difficult to maintain it, or it will become the "cannon fodder" of the market.

Lack of application software into the biggest short board

At present, the biggest problem for wearable communication devices is that they lack sufficient application software support.

From the smart watches launched by Samsung, Sony and domestic giant husks, TCL and other manufacturers, there are only a few hundred applications available to users, even if some of the existing applications are mostly transplanted from the smart phone. Or it's just based on a simple calculation of the sensor, such as how many steps, how much heat is consumed, how many hours of sleep, and so on.

It is precisely because of the imperfection of the ecosystem that the wearable devices on the current market exist only as accessory derivatives of smart phones or accessory products. This positioning determines that the functions of these wearable devices can be replaced. The response from this user is "may be optional."

Industry experts pointed out that the development of wearable devices, the ecosystem plays a decisive role, is also the key to determine who can occupy the commanding heights after the outbreak of the wearable device market in the future.

Not long ago, Intel has sold millions of dollars to attract global developers. It is not difficult to see that Intel, who missed the tide of smartphones, naturally does not want to lose the opportunity of wearable devices. For many domestic manufacturers who are pouring into the field of wearable devices, we should also pay attention to the creation of ecosystems. If we just copy the functions and applications of transplanted smartphones, it will be difficult to maintain.

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