Wearable devices: Has the war among giants begun?

On March 25, the three IT giants Intel, Google and Facebook simultaneously announced their investments in the field of wearable devices. This was an unprecedented event. Their influence in the industry is no less than that of Didi and Kuaidi. At the same time, they announced an increase in subsidies.

Intel's investment target is Basis Science, a manufacturer of wearable health tracking devices, and the acquisition amount is about US$100 million. Basis Science's main product is the Basis brand wristband, which can record heart rate, sweat volume, exercise and sleep conditions and sells for US$200.

Facebook, which is rich in wealth, spent $2 billion to acquire Oculus VR, a manufacturer of virtual reality glasses. This is Facebook's first acquisition of a hardware manufacturer. Previously, Facebook just acquired What's App, known as the "American version of QQ", for a sky-high price of $19 billion. The combination of virtual and real products is full of expectations.

In contrast, Google is more artistic, and its partner is Luxottica Group, a well-known Italian eyewear manufacturer. This Italian company with a difficult name owns well-known eyewear brands such as Ray-Ban. Google finally realized that its "Google Glass" could not meet the needs of fashion people, and began to seek help from professional eyewear manufacturers.

While the industry giants are maneuvering, most of the wearable devices in China are still at the conceptual stage. The hotly speculated companies in the capital market, such as Beijing Ingenic, Desay Battery, and O-Film, can only serve as a tool for others.

How did Nike+ come about?

On January 15 this year, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, three new products launched by iHealth, a subsidiary of iHealth Medical, attracted the attention of foreigners.

These three products are dynamic blood pressure monitor, wireless dynamic electrocardiogram monitor and wearable pulse oximeter. With its major global production bases for blood pressure monitors, iHealth has developed nearly ten wearable products in the five major categories of blood pressure, blood sugar, blood oxygen, weight and exercise records since 2010.

Electronic products are getting closer and closer to the human body.

From the initial desktop computers to laptops, and then to various tablets and mobile phones, for these products, human hands, feet, eyes, ears and other sensory organs are the entrances they compete for. The closer the effect, the better. Wearable devices are a type of electronic product developed based on this concept.

The first “wearable device” that China came into contact with was the iPod with Nike+ function launched by Apple in 2006. In the era before the iPhone, the iPod was the most fashionable mobile device.

Steve Jobs, who was still alive at the time, commented on Nike+: "Our collaboration with Nike has taken the combination of sports and music to a new level, so that you have a personal coach or running partner to motivate you every step of the way."

Looking back at Nike+, it is actually just a simple software application. It uses the gravity sensor of the iPod to develop a running counting function, combined with GPS positioning, remote consultation and other technologies, to provide runners or walkers with distance, calorie consumption and other functions. Nike also launched the first running shoe with wearable function, Air Zoom Moire, which further collects data such as stride length and strength, and draws a panoramic picture of the exercise effect for exercisers.

Two major schools

Wearable devices first entered the Chinese people’s field of vision around 2010.

This is not because of the large-scale launch of products, but people who have been following the Internet field for a long time have discovered that Google has applied for patents for its smart glasses since November 2010, and has made patent layouts from the underlying hardware structure and power consumption safety to the upper-level human-computer interaction, device coordination, and appearance design.

In early 2010, Google officially withdrew from China. Everyone thought that Google was unwilling to give in and was handing the market over to its competitors. But when Google came up with its patent for smart glasses, "Internet analysts" began to exclaim: So there is a conspiracy here!

In fact, apart from Google's unique creativity, most wearable devices are still focused on health care and sports functions. The two major schools are represented by Internet companies and clothing companies respectively.

Nike has been making great strides since the iPod. In 2010, it developed Nike+Running and linked it to Twitter and Facebook, turning running into a social activity. Of course, this idea hit a wall in China, so Nike had to settle for the next best thing and cooperate with Sina Weibo and QQ Space. Weibo celebrity Pan Shiyi once posted his running results on Weibo many times, becoming Nike's official spokesperson without spending any advertising money.

As Weibo's vitality declined, the Nike team quickly moved to the WeChat platform and turned running into a social platform. Of course, behind the whole operation, Nike's running equipment has achieved good sales performance in China.

As of November 2013, Nike+ had 18 million registered users worldwide, most of whom were running enthusiasts. In China, the number of registered Nike+ users increased by 130% over the past year, and the number of Nike+ APP downloads increased by 350% from 570,000 last year to 2.58 million.

Adidas, another competitor, has also launched a smart watch that, in addition to using built-in GPS to track user activities, can also use sensors to monitor heart rate to understand exercise intensity, and provide exercise guidance through information displayed on the screen or vibration, and can also send reminders through Bluetooth headphones.

The fact that Adidas and Nike are competing in the wearable device field at the same time is enough to show the importance they attach to this field.

Healthcare is another direction of evolution for wearable devices. Smart bracelets can easily monitor blood pressure and pulse. IMS, a world-renowned medical consulting firm, once said: "For diabetes, especially type 1 diabetes, continuous monitoring of blood sugar levels is crucial to treatment. This brings about the demand for monitoring equipment."

iHealth is one of the representatives. Its various App-based blood pressure monitors, Bluetooth blood glucose meters and other products and applications have put ordinary physical fitness monitoring work on the cloud. Combined with popular concepts such as chronic disease control and weight loss, wearable devices seem to be replacing routine physical examinations.

IMS predicts that by 2050, one in five people in the world will be over 60 years old, and chronic diseases that need to be monitored, such as high blood pressure, late-onset diabetes, and heart disease, will become the driving force behind the growth in demand for wearable devices.

But do all these products really need to be made into bracelets or watches?

Swatch CEO Nick Hayek scoffed: "Personally, I don't think this will be the next innovation. Consumers like to wear beautiful watches and change different styles according to different occasions. In this case, smart watches are too expensive, and the screen is too big and ugly."

It seems that Google is still ahead. Google Glass is one of the few wearable entertainment devices currently. People's demand for entertainment far exceeds that for exercise and health management, so the market potential is greater. Of course, behind Google, companies such as Vuzix and Oculus are also catching up.

The Chinese market is starting

Compared with the bustling world trend, China seems much quieter.

my country's wearable device market is still in its infancy. The "2013 China Wearable Device Market Research Report" released by iMedia Consulting in January this year showed that the scale of China's wearable device market reached 610 million yuan in 2012, and it is expected that by 2015, the scale of China's wearable device market will exceed 10 billion yuan, reaching 11.49 billion yuan.

When reporters covering the two sessions put on Google Glass for the first time, although everyone knew it was just a decoration and could not connect to the Internet, they still looked at it with envy. This shows the huge potential of wearable devices in China.

For domestic consumers, wearable devices that are too trendy, such as smart contact lenses and smart capsules, are not very popular, but products such as smart watches, smart wrists, and smart glasses will become consumer hotspots in the near future.

The basis for this is that more users will pay attention to health in the future, and exercise will become a lifestyle. More and more people will pay attention to professional sports equipment, including Basis Scince, Apple's wrist pedometer and Nike+ FuelBand. This kind of equipment that can give professional measurement values ​​in daily life will be more popular and expected.

According to market research firm Juniper, the market for smart wearable products reached $1.5 billion in 2014, and annual sales of smart wearable devices are expected to increase to 70 million units in 2017.

How can any company miss such a big market? Zhang Qing, CEO of KeyZhiDao, said in an interview with a reporter from 21st Century Business Herald that if a lifestyle is first introduced, the first companies to invest will benefit the most when the market explodes in the future. The battle for wearable devices has already begun.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.