Smart wearable is a popular product type in the current consumer electronics market, which assists users to better enjoy life with its lightweight and portable design and rich functions. Among them, smart watches/bracelets are currently the most representative products among smart wearable products, which have been widely recognized by the market based on core functions such as health monitoring, sports management, convenient and smart life, as well as both fashion attributes.
According to public survey data, the global shipment of smart watches/bracelets in 2023 will be 186 million units, an increase of 2% over the whole year of 2022. In the context of the sluggish overall growth of the consumer electronics category, smart watches/bracelets still maintain positive growth, indicating the vitality of the market. And with the improvement of user function demand, the arrival of replacement time nodes, the rise of emerging markets and other factors, smart watches/bracelets will usher in a further recovery in 2024, and it is predicted to reach a growth of 10%.
Recently, based on the hot spots of the smart wearable market and the questions of many fans, I love audio network invited Mr. Zhang Tianyi, director of the wearable and perception division of Torch Core Technology, to give detailed answers to the four major aspects of the smart wearable market from the domestic and foreign needs of the smart wearable market, the growth trend of smart wearables, the role of technology in the smart wearable market and the smart wearable solutions launched by Torch Core.
Mr. Zhang Tianyi holds a master's degree in technical signal and information processing from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, and has more than 15 years of rich experience in R&D, management, operation and marketing promotion in the chip design industry.
Emphasis added:
-India and Southeast Asia are expected to be the main markets for sales growth due to their large population base and the proportion of young consumers
-The increase in the number of people running for fitness and running and the increase in interest in health data further contributed to the growth of smart watch sales
-Price is currently the main factor affecting sales in the Indian market, and the domestic market is more focused on product experience and differentiation
-24-hour health monitoring, non-inductive wearing, and long battery life are the key factors in the development of smart watches
-AI will further promote the upgrading of sports health monitoring algorithms
- Although smart rings can replace some of the functions of smart watches, they are more of a coexistence relationship
1. The demand for smart wearable market at home and abroad
52audio 豆总:
What do you think of the overseas market, and how many sections are it divided into?
Torch core Zhang Tianyi:
The overseas market, which we pay more attention to, can be divided into three sectors, including the Indian market, the Southeast Asian market, and the e-commerce market in Europe and the United States. Among them, the Indian market has been the hottest in the past two years, because India has a relatively large population base, and the proportion of young consumers who are interested in smart products is also relatively high.
With the rapid popularization of products in the Indian market, the growth trend has slowed down, and the attention of the Southeast Asian market is gradually increasing, because it has a relatively similar demographic structure to the Indian market, and a certain population base. The European and American markets are relatively mature, and the opportunities for imagination are smaller than those of the other two markets, but the European and American markets have performed well in Q1 this year.
52audio 豆总:
What do you think will be the current market situation of smart watches at home and abroad?
Torch core Zhang Tianyi:
As far as this year and 2024 are concerned, I think there will definitely be a bigger growth in the whole big market. Last year and this year, there are more and more low-cost solutions, and the proportion is getting higher and higher, such as the Indian market. Smart watches detonated the market at a very low price, showing doubling growth, and at the same time played a role in educating users to popularize the market, digging more space for better quality product growth in the future.
In the domestic market, at present, the price of smart watches under head brands such as Huawei, OPPO, and vivo is still relatively high, and in the future, with the continuous integration of the industry and the reduction of product costs, whether more favorable prices can detonate the sales of these brands again, it is also worth paying attention to. Xiaomi is more resolute in this area, cost-effective route, and the benefits are more obvious.
In addition, from the perspective of consumption, users' acceptance of smart watches is constantly improving, which is due to the fact that there are more and more people exercising for fitness and running, who need to obtain their own sports status through smart watches;
52audio 豆总:
When it comes to the Indian market, what do you think of the impact of several leading brands in India starting to put factories and production lines in India? We learned that the previous model was for Chinese solution providers to purchase chips for solutions, Chinese factories to produce them, and then send the whole machine to India for sale. A lot has changed now, what do you think?
Torch core Zhang Tianyi:
目前印度市场主要的三种模式包括整机CBU（Complete Built Unit）、全散件CKD（Completely Knock Down）和半散件SKD（Semi Knocked Down），由于印度对三种模式不同的税收政策，导致印度品牌厂商开始朝向印度制造发展。
Its main impact is temporarily on the back-end, and it has little impact on front-end chip manufacturers. After switching to Make in India, Indian brands hope to further reduce costs and increase sales. But on the other hand, with the current level of Indian manufacturing, compared with China's patch and finished product assembly level, the efficiency and yield rate still need to be improved, such as this future breakthrough, there should be good room for growth.
52audio 豆总:
Torch Core's smart watch solution has been adopted by brands such as Xiaomi, Honor, and realme in China, and has also been adopted by TOP 5 brands in the Indian market.
Torch core Zhang Tianyi:
I personally think that the Indian market is currently similar to the situation in China a few years ago, and it still belongs to the stage of educating users, many consumers are buying this kind of smart wearable watch products for the first time, and there is no clear understanding of the quality of their experience; In the Indian market, there will be a significant increase in sales of products with better prices, at the expense of quality.
Domestic consumers have gone through this process, more based on some of their own needs, and then buy smart wearable products of different grades and brands, so product experience and differentiation have become the main factors for consumers to buy, and brands will eventually find a balance that meets consumer needs under their own market positioning.
Second, the growth trend of the smart wearable market
52audio 豆总:
We just talked about the needs of domestic and foreign markets and brands and consumers, so in the future development, what do you think can further drive the growth of the smart wearable market?
Torch core Zhang Tianyi:
I think there will be every link, including the huge potential consumer groups in India and Southeast Asia markets mentioned above, chip performance, health algorithm accuracy, longer battery life, third-party applications that can be played, product experience upgrades brought about by technological innovations such as cat1/wifi, decorative attributes improved by brand design innovation, and fan groups co-branded by some brands, etc., are the future growth trends of the smart wearable market.
52audio 豆总:
AI is a hot topic at the moment, what kind of combination will smart watches have with AI in the future, and will AI drive the development of the smart watch market?
Torch core Zhang Tianyi:
AI can be regarded as another algorithm path on the watch side, which solves the specifications that cannot be achieved by traditional classical algorithms, and in the future development, AI will be conducive to promoting the upgrade of smart watch sports health monitoring algorithms. In addition, by uploading data, analyzing and statistically computing in the cloud, the data is more accurate, and a more complete body data report is provided to assist users in more scientific exercise, training, and medical assistance. At the same time, there will be more imagination space for the combination of the watch APP with ChatGPT, Kimi large models and content.
52audio 豆总:
In recent years, the attention of smart rings has gradually risen, and there are many overlaps between them and smart watches in terms of functions, and they have a better experience in the core function of sports health monitoring, and they are more insensible to wear, so do you think it will affect the future development of smart watches?
Torch core Zhang Tianyi:
Smart rings and smart watches are like smart watches and smartphones, although they can replace some functions, but I think the two are more of a coexistence relationship.
At present, smart rings mainly have two core functions of health monitoring and control, of which health monitoring has the same function as smart watches, but due to volume limitations, it is mainly responsible for data collection, and data viewing also requires mobile phones to cooperate, so it cannot meet the needs of real-time data viewing in sports scenarios such as exercise, running, swimming, etc., and there are fewer functions that can be done compared to smart watches;
3. The promotion of technology iteration on the smart wearable market
52audio 豆总:
What technologies do you think will help the development of smart watches?
Torch core Zhang Tianyi:
The most essential need to be solved by smart watches/bracelets should be to be able to monitor people's physical characteristics 24 hours a day, so the requirements for internal sensors, chips and algorithms will be higher and higher. Therefore, the improvement of measurement accuracy and algorithm richness (such as blood pressure, blood sugar, stress, and mood) will continue to promote the development of smart watches.
There is also a non-inductive demand for 24-hour wear, which is why many people are currently paying attention to smart rings, with the development and application of flexible screen technology, smart watches will be made more lightweight, thereby improving the experience of smart watches and further expanding the audience.
52audio 豆总:
Like the torch core, what kind of help will the development of chip technology in the smart watch industry chain bring to this product?
Torch core Zhang Tianyi:
From our point of view, the first thing for chips for smart watches is to reduce power consumption, so as to improve battery life. For example, 14 days is a threshold at present, and the next step is to increase it to 21 days, and then extend it to 30 days, which is a technical point that needs to be broken through in the future for chips. Of course, the development of other technologies is also promoting the improvement of battery life, such as breakthroughs in battery technology, or the application of light and mechanical energy recovery technology.
On the other hand, in response to the increase in demand for smart watches in the future, it is necessary to give the chip stronger computing power to ensure that it has more scalability in the future, such as the rich health algorithms, AI functions, or 3D display effects just mentioned.
Fourth, the torch core smart wearable solution
52audio 豆总:
In 2021, Torch Core released the first generation of smart watch solution ATS308X series, which has achieved good results since its launch, and has also become the [2023 Golden Wisdom Award| Smart Wearable Master Control Chip of the Year]. Can you tell us a little bit about the solution and why it works?
Torch core Zhang Tianyi:
Torch Core ATS308X this chip, and caught up with a good opportunity of the times at that time, because it was in the switch of smart watches from Bluetooth single-mode BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) to dual-mode Bluetooth (with Bluetooth call, Bluetooth song playback function), and realized the functions of the previous two chips through one chip.
The main feature of the torch core ATS308X is high integration, because it has changed from two chips to one chip, and it also has a high frame rate, achieving a UI experience of 60 frames, as well as low power consumption, which can meet the scene of 10 to 14 days of battery life. Due to the above reasons, this chip has been recognized by the majority of brands as soon as it was launched, such as Xiaomi, Honor, and India's TOP5 brands.
52audio 豆总:
In 2023, Torch Core Technology has launched a new second-generation smart watch chip ATS3085E, ATS3085S and ATS3089, what innovations and breakthroughs have been brought compared with the previous generation?
Torch core Zhang Tianyi:
The second-generation smart watch chip launched by Torch Core Technology has significantly improved its performance and power consumption compared with the previous generation chip, which is more in line with users' needs for cool experience and long-term wear.
The second-generation smart watch chip mainly adopts a new low-power design, supports dual GPU rotation, integrates sensorhub module, and can independently collect and process sensor data, MCU power consumption is 12uA/[email protected], and the power consumption of BR and BLE dual connection is <100μ A@500ms, and the power consumption of the typical use cases of the second-generation chip is about 20% lower than that of the first generation.
The second-generation smart watch chip adds JPEG hardware decoding, the image compression rate is increased by 50%, the picture decoding speed is increased by 100%, and the UI interface is further improved, and it supports AI ENC noise reduction technology, which can bring clearer and more stable calls, and the built-in charging module with path management supports 400mA charging current, and even introduces AES encryption engine and other technologies to further improve security protection.
The second-generation smart watch chip can support more sports and health algorithms in the application, as well as integrate the global offline map navigation solution in the watch application, and the user can get a more cool three-dimensional UI interface, which can be switched to a 2.5D three-dimensional interface under the conventional UI interface, which still maintains a very high degree of smoothness of use, and in such a use scenario, it still has a long battery life of 10-14 days, which is an advantage that many brand applications value.
5. I love audio network summary
Through the careful answers of Mr. Zhang Tianyi, Director of Torch Core Wearable and Perception Division, we have a clearer understanding and understanding of the current smart wearable market, brands and consumer needs, and at the same time strengthen our confidence in the future development of this market.
From the perspective of the market, smart wearable devices still have a vast space for growth, whether it is the improvement of the domestic market's attention to health, or the large number of young people in India and Southeast Asia who are interested in consumer electronics, will become the driving factor to promote the growth of smart wearable product sales in the future.
From the perspective of brands, with the continuous integration of the industry, cost reduction, and continuous iterative optimization of its own products, it will be able to provide more diversified choices for the different needs and preferences of consumers. For consumers, the demand for smart wearable devices is increasing, from the accuracy of sports health monitoring data, the richness of algorithms, to the expectation of fashionable appearance, personalized settings and convenient smart life, which will drive the future growth of smart wearable devices.
Enterprises in the industrial chain like torch core, through continuous technological innovation, will provide strong support for the development of the industry. For example, in the future, the combination of AI technology will promote the upgrade of smart watch sports health monitoring algorithms, bring more accurate data detection and more scientific guidance, as well as the application of flexible screens, the improvement of system computing power, the continuous optimization of power consumption, and the progress of battery technology, which will further enhance the attractiveness of products and promote product sales growth.