Want to crack the wearable puzzle? Please hold the group to warm up!
According to a recent survey by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), consumers who have a willingness to purchase dedicated wearable fitness equipment will be 13% in the next 12 months, a quadrupling from 3% in the same period last year. Coincidentally, market research firm Juniper recently released a report predicting the top 10 trends in the technology industry in 2014, with wearables among them. The agency said 2014 will be a year of "blowout" of wearable devices. These include the two most common forms of smart watches and fitness tracking wristbands. At the forthcoming World Mobile Communications Conference (MWC), a number of giants will exhibit exhibits.
There are indications that from the wearable devices of CES2014 to Google's $3.2 billion acquisition of Nest, the smart home manufacturer, it shows the broad development prospects of the Internet of Things and embedded smart devices. Recently, Microsoft's IoT team has also increased its presence. It is said that wearable devices will be one of the research and development areas of the Internet of Things.
In fact, wearable devices are not just a piece of hardware, but also a series of systems and services, and the latter is the main reason for determining product differentiation. A small pedometer is a device that works with applications, data, and works across platforms or with other devices to build an ecosystem. To achieve a wearable dream, beware of the inherent hardware first thought, starting with the software, putting the user in the heart.
Wearable device market to soar the original factory to collect firewood high
In fact, Maxim was first deployed in wearables and introduced a reference design for the FIT signage service. There are three versions of this sign monitoring service. One for fitness (with 2 sensors); one for hospitals (with 5 sensors); one for nursing homes (with 4 sensors). Each version of the software is different. For fitness applications, one can visually observe the time required for the heart rate to return to the heart rate at rest; for hospital applications, the ECG waveform can be viewed to determine if there is a timing or blockage problem; for nursing home or home monitoring applications, Monitor heart rate and activity levels. Meixin is responsible for the relevant R&D manager. The FIT signage service can measure the three-lead ECG, body temperature and exercise status, and can measure more ECGs (5 to 12) in the future.
Control of hardware size and power consumption has also been a wearable design challenge. Wang Sheng, Marketing Manager of ADI's Asia Pacific Healthcare Industry, said that the following technical problems in wearable health care and health management products are: how to make it easier for users to use, and second, how to improve accuracy, and how to ensure the above two. In the case of how to control the cost and time to market; in terms of user experience, the focus is on miniaturized design, low power consumption to reduce battery size and life, innovation in product usage is particularly important; cost control to achieve family and Market expansion of personal applications. At the same time, the services of technology and solutions are equally important. The bigger change is that the demand for individual electronic components is much larger than that in the traditional electronics field, and the required delivery cycle is much faster. For suppliers, change The original supply and service model is particularly important, and ADI is ready in these areas.
So, how should wearables be laid out? Jeff Baer, ​​Director of Business Development, Broadcom's Embedded Wireless and Wireless Connectivity Division, emphasizes that its strengths are integration, ease of use, and low cost. "With the least amount of power to complete as many communication tasks as possible," Broadcom's chips are designed for this purpose. The chip consumes only the power needed to perform a specific task, making the wearable device extremely efficient.
What is the key point of the market for wearable devices? Jeff Baer further pointed out that the wearable market needs to be low-power, location-aware, and devices that can be interconnected whenever and wherever possible. The ability to connect these products to smart devices is critical because it not only provides a window into which these devices collect data, but also serves as a central hub for sending this data to the cloud. The use of wireless technology to send and receive this data on smartphones and tablets can greatly reduce the data processing needs of wearable devices and the need for power consumption. In turn, the corresponding costs and costs are reduced for manufacturers and consumers.
In fact, the initial stages of the development of the Internet of Things and wearable devices were mainly driven by the development of wireless technologies, including Wi-Fi, smart Bluetooth technology, Near Field Communication (NFC) and Global Positioning System (GPS). Improvements in size, heat dissipation and battery make it possible to have better performance and smaller equipment.
Bluetooth Smart (formerly known as Bluetooth Low Energy) is such an innovation that changes the landscape. It allows the device to consume very little energy while it is running, and a coin-sized battery can be used for months or even years.
The Chief Marketing Officer of the Bluetooth SIG, Zhuo Wentai, said that the new Bluetooth 4.1 specification adds a dedicated channel for the use of core-specific IPv6 communications and lays the foundation for future IP connectivity protocols. This has greatly solved the problem that the wearable device is not easy to access the Internet. With the rapid acceptance of Bluetooth Smart and the continuous addition of IP connectivity, various indications show that Bluetooth will become the foundation of the Internet of Things wireless connection.
What kind of wearable device will be accepted?
How can wearable devices quickly become an essential item for consumers? We believe that wearables need to choose between extreme and fashion and complete invisibility, either fashion or invisibility!
Wearable device manufacturers can consider working with fashion brands to make the product look attractive enough. In addition to its rich functions, wearable medical devices need to be more beautiful and natural in appearance, like wearing jewelry such as rings, bracelets, earrings, bracelets, etc., to avoid consumers' sense of "foreign objects" and to stimulate consumers' desire to purchase. Consumers won't be willing to pay $300 for a "smart watch" that looks like an improved calculator watch; or $1,500 for a Google Glass that looks like an "alien." Light design is not enough for a feature-rich product. Wearable medical device manufacturers need to learn from the fashion industry, or consider working with fashion brands to make the product look stylish enough, and it is worth paying a premium for consumers to move from “wearable†to "Want to wear", from the niche to the masses.
Google Glass and Galaxy Gear have explored the way to make wearables more stylish: 1) GoogleGlass is working with the fashion eyewear merchant WarbyParker and fashion brand Diane Von Furstenberg to get rid of the weird image just launched. T stage; 2) Galaxy Gear's prototype in the development stage is only black and gray, and Samsung Mobile Executive Vice President YH Lee believes that smart watches are a wearable fashion product that needs to use a variety of colors to attract young consumers. Therefore, they persuaded the company's executives to implement an colorful strategy, introducing wild orange, oatmeal, lime green, mocha ash and rose gold. But the change in color is just a preliminary attempt at fashion. We expect Samsung to have more fashion factors in the future of wearable devices; 3) Misfit, founded by former Apple CEO John Sculley, launched "the most elegant physiological activity tracking device" Shine, which is completely different from rubber and plastic bracelets such as FuelBand, JawboneUp 2 and Fitbit. Shine's outer casing is made of aerospace grade aluminum. It is frosted and has a rounded shape. It is only button-sized, like a delicate cobblestone. The 2013 Red Dot Design Award. It is worth mentioning that Misfit got $100,000 in financing on the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo for only 9 hours, which is the fastest financing for Indiegogo.
Threat: wearable industry chain and consumption are not mature
In fact, on January 13, 2014, Image Technology released an INWATCH, the first channel dealer in China to specialize in wearable devices. Shenzhen Xiberry Mobile Technology Co., Ltd. was the only contracted comprehensive watch in 2013. Manufacturer.
A 3C channel executive in Shenzhen said that the range of wearable devices is too wide and the product forms are various. Therefore, it is difficult to say when there will be an outbreak in the market. At present, there is still no mature solution for technology research and development, operating system development, etc.
It is understood that many cottage mobile phone manufacturers are now transforming into wearable devices. In fact, they may not understand the objective situation of the market. Many products are homogenized and cannot be seen. Customers are afraid to order them.
The impact of wearable devices on other consumer electronics products will not occur in the short term. But in the next few years, this kind of shock will likely pose a huge threat to other forms of products. This threat may be subversive and innovative. Consumers have different needs for different functions of wearable devices at different stages and for different groups. If wearable devices can solve user pain points by exploring user needs, there will be room for existence.
In the next few years, the real market for the wearable device will require the construction and integration of the overall industrial ecosystem such as chip-operating system-vendor-application service provider, which requires the whole industry chain to “warm the groupâ€.
——This article is selected from the “I Innovation†column of the “Electronic Wearable Technology Special Issue†in February. Please indicate the source, please do not hesitate!
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