Since Google released its first smart glasses, wearable devices have become a major focus of the IT industry. Since then, market enthusiasm has increased with the release of the Apple Watch. According to the latest market report released by the market research company IDC, the global shipments of wearable devices in the first quarter of 2015 exceeded 11.4 million units, almost three times that of the same period in 2014 (3.8 .performance advantages such as the portability of wearable devices and cloud interconnection will become more and more obvious. Therefore, wearable devices will become the next hot spot after smart phones, there is no doubt. However, before this, wearable devices need to solve the problem of how to become a product that consumers just need. Otherwise, the growth of shipments may only become the manufacturer's "wishful thinking.
" IDC recently announced the "Global Market Quarterly Wearable Device Tracking Report". According to data, in the first quarter of 2015, Fitbit, Xiaomi and Garmin were the world's top three wearable device manufacturers. However, Apple started selling Apple Watch in April this year. Therefore, when the data for the second quarter is released, Apple will be at the forefront of this ranking.
Specifically, Fitbit's device shipments are 3.9 million units, with a market share of 34%. IDC believes that focusing on the leisure and high-end markets at the same time is an important reason for Fitbit's success. And Fitbit's market share is 10% higher than the second-ranked Xiaomi. Xiaomi's second place is mainly based on the sales of Xiaomi bracelets in China's domestic market. IDC believes that Xiaomi will soon further develop the international market and become a strong competitor of Fitbit.
Similar to Fitbit, Garmin also provides a variety of wearable device products. However, Garmin's market share is only slightly higher than 6%. Samsung ranked fourth. In this regard, IDC analysts pointed out that Samsung's poor performance is mainly due to its Gear devices can only connect to certain high-end Samsung smartphones.
Although in terms of data or product quantity, the wearable market is booming, but there is still the embarrassment of hot inside and hot outside, especially now that there are very few companies that can achieve real profitability. The reason is that it is still difficult for wearable devices to escape the positioning.
It is undeniable that over-reliance on smartphones is undoubtedly catering to the ecosystem of mobile phone manufacturers. Defining itself as a part of the ecosystem is obviously not in line with the original intention of wearable manufacturers to open interfaces. Rather than relying on mobile phones to make an independent product, manufacturers have to ensure user experience and arouse users' desire to buy. There is still a long way to go.
Secondly, the endurance of wearable devices has become one of the problems that manufacturers urgently need to overcome. Judging from the current situation, wearable devices are full of tricks, and various products are emerging one after another, highlighting the rich innovation of manufacturers for wearable products, but the bottleneck of battery life hinders the popularization of these products, and finally these products can only be reduced to The embarrassment of the vase.
Meet consumers just need to win the future At present,
the wearable devices on the market in China are roughly divided into watches, bracelets, and glasses. Most of them have simple functions, mostly focusing on positioning, communication reminders, ID authentication, health management, and sleep monitoring. However, the real dilemma of wearable devices lies in the asymmetry of function and cumbersomeness. Fewer and fewer users will wear wristbands in order to view information such as calories, walking steps and night sleep quality. Fewer and fewer users have to use wristbands to wake their sleeping self, and fewer and fewer users will do it for an instant. Unlock the phone and choose to wear the bracelet.
The predictive analysis platform First Insight conducted a survey of 350 consumers. First Insight removed the trademark of the device and used it for consumers who participated in the test. A total of 15 wearable devices were tested. The results showed that only the Nabu Razer smart wristband scored 9 points, which means that the product is likely to sell well. 67% of the tested wearable devices are 5 or less, which means that the product needs improvement or is likely to fail.
Zhao Ping, deputy director of the Consumer Economic Research Department of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, said that on the whole, wearable device products are still in their infancy and require a higher level of operation to use. How to improve the user's comfort experience, especially for middle-aged and elderly people, can solve the problem by just pressing one or two buttons like operating a TV. This aspect needs to be greatly improved. In addition, how to transmit data to the cloud and to the Internet like the more popular bracelets is not technically mature yet, which is a bit close to the state of information islands.
In short, for wearable devices to truly penetrate the mass consumer market, they must have the threshold of product practicability, industrial chain maturity, and business model perfection. At present, the overall user experience is not outstanding. Perhaps the breakthrough point of wearable devices in the future will be in the vertical segmentation field. Whether it can solve the needs of segmented users will be the key.