MWC forward observation: How wearable devices and smart machines will be developed

The 2015 MWC World Communications Conference is over.

And as we have said before, on this MWC, while Samsung and HTC have released their flagship handsets, wearable devices have taken the spotlight off of smartphones. Here's the question: where is the wearable device? What is the overall development attitude? What about smartphones? Please see the NetEase technology in front of reporters sent back observation.

Can wear and steal the limelight: new layer out positioning more clearly

Wen/Wang

At this exhibition, the new technology and new products attracted the majority of the exhibition staff, including wearable equipment is to seize the limelight of the mobile phone, become the most popular category in the pavilion, HTC, LG, Huawei, ZTE and so on have launched its new wearable equipment, Samsung, Lenovo and other manufacturers also put their own recently released wearable equipment in a conspicuous position. So what are the features of this year's wearable equipment and what are the trends?

Smart watch

Smart watch and smart bracelet are the most common wearable equipment, and are also the largest and most recent and most mature wearable equipment category. According to IDC forecasts, 2015 China's intelligent wearable equipment shipments will be more than 6.5 million, including watches and hand ring products over 6.3 million. Although not as mobile phone shipments of a hair, but is about to form a scale, the outbreak is inevitable. Among them, this year's smart watch in the appearance of more round dial, and with the help of voice input gradually gained independence, and gradually seize the mobile phone to become the future control center.

The round dial is heated

At this MWC conference, the most active in watches is Huawei and LG. Huawei unveiled its first smart watch on MWC, the Watch, using a 1.4-inch round AMOLED screen with a resolution of 400*400 (pixel density of 286ppi), with a silver, black and gold three colors to choose from, with the Android Wear system. Whether from the design or the system experience is like a Moto 360. And LG launched the latest smart watch G Watch urbane and urbane LTE, also invariably adopted a round dial design, the former based on the Android Wear system, the latter based on the webOS system, the latter than the former increased physical buttons, a larger battery, support NFC mobile payment. In addition, ZTE also showed three smart watches, the main function is health testing, recording movement data and so on.

Some analysts believe that the major manufacturers invariably push smart watch new products, because Apple is about to hold a conference on March 9, and very likely to release Apple Watch. The big manufacturers grab ahead of the Apple layout and launch a round dial design that is different from Apple's watch, proving that Apple Watch's launch is about to detonate the smart watch market, and on the other hand, that the smart watch is promising, and vendors are actively exploring it.

Four functions to make it independent

Smart watches are increasingly independent of mobile phones because they have separate operating systems, some with WiFi and SIM cards, which make them an independent product and have the opportunity to overtake mobile phones. From the current product view, voice input, mobile payment, motion tracking, notification reminders These four functions will become the cornerstone of intelligent watch explosion.

As we all know, because of the screen, can also built-in microphone, vibration reminders and so on, so notice the function of the alert is no less than the phone, just need to be optimized for the watch. The input, limited by the small screen, touch typing is not workable, and the watch can not use too many physical buttons, so voice input is the most suitable for smart watch input mode. Last September, led by ZTE, Nuance, audience and Baidu Gao De and so on the formation of the Smart Voice Alliance. MWC, NXP and sensory also joined, will work together to address voice recognition, background noise reduction, mobile phone automatically judge the scene and so on, and let more manufacturers to push the speech operation. This shows that voice operation or will become a smart watch really independent fuse.

In addition, the mobile payment and motion tracking feature is the smart watch's current two core features, and also the most fitting watch features. Because the time wears on the wrist, therefore uses the NFC and so on the chip to achieve the mobile payment, the data exchange and so on the function is also good; In the future, smart watches will be able to challenge the central position of mobile phones.

However, smart watches also have a lot of important problems to solve, such as the duration of the time is too short to complete voice calls and so on independently.

Second, the intelligent hand ring

With regard to the positioning of smart hand rings and the difference between smart watches and whether there is no screen is not a strict boundary, on the MWC, many smart hand rings are also played on the Low-power screen, while some smart watches do not have a built-in touch screen. The real distinction is between the operating system and the ability to extend it. Judging from the products exhibited by MWC, the smart watch should be more like an independent product, it has its own operating system and input and output mode, can realize function expansion and control operation. And the smart bracelet is more like an accessory that can achieve continuous and stable data monitoring, while having a more compact appearance and a combination of aesthetic beauty. At present, the function of Intelligent watch and intelligent hand ring is more and more convergent, but whether the two can be fused depends on power consumption and future development trend.

Ink Shuishi low Power screen Join

Lenovo Booth, the display of CES published in the ink screen smart hand ring Vibe Band 1, this bracelet is the proud of Lenovo, ink screen so that it has the same as ordinary watch display time function, but also simple display of notification information and data. Sony also showed the SmartBand Talk SWR30, which was released at CES in the morning, and also carried the ink screen. In addition, HTC Joint sports brand under Armoour launched grip intelligent hand ring, with low-power digital display, in the appearance of closer to the Microsoft hand ring, the same equipped with motion monitoring, built-in GPS module, such as five sensors. Acer launched the smart hand ring liquid leap+, with a 1-inch OLED touch screen, Bluetooth 4.0, IPX7 Waterproof certification, support iOS, Android, Windows three platforms, with mobile phone notification push, activity and sleep habit tracking and music control functions. Of course, like Fitbit Special wearable enterprise also actively display their products.

Ink Shuishi, such as the addition of Low-power display, can solve the intelligent hand ring without output channel embarrassment, power consumption is also lower than the smart watch, endurance longer, and shape design can be more flexible and diverse.

From deformation to innovation

In the field of intelligent hand ring, in addition to the screen, can let the author's Eyes is the introduction of Intelligent hand Ring TalkBand B2, this hand ring in addition to the regular fitness tracking function, its main equipment can still be removed as a Bluetooth headset use, normal use can reach 5 days, Continuous call time 7 hours. This dual-use equipment is a useful exploration of the function of intelligent hand ring and the transfer of voice call function to wearable equipment, but it also needs the consumer's long-term use test.

In any case, the smart bracelet will continue to grow in the short term, but also to avoid the smart watch's encroachment on the introduction of more functional and deformation design, from this point of view, this year's smart hand ring will reach maturity.

Iii. virtual reality and augmented reality equipment

At the MWC fair, many technology vendors began to launch their own virtual reality (VR) equipment and augmented Reality (AR) devices.

Clearer positioning

In VR terms, HTC Joint Valve launches VIVE virtual reality devices that can play games and watch videos, and may launch customized content in the future. Samsung has shown Gear VR virtual reality glasses, with the latest Galaxy S6, more lifelike in display, and a truly subversive experience. Of course, there are specialized virtual reality manufacturer Oculus launched Oculus Rift. At present, VR equipment is mainly used to play games and watch video, can bring a very shocking effect to users. And the AR aspect, from the beginning of the Google glasses, to Sony glasses, and then to Microsoft's HoloLens holographic glasses are not in the industry caused a sensation. These devices are used primarily to enhance game performance and to manage and analyze smart devices.

Subversive experience

From card games, online games, the tour of the hand, game room equipment and so on, the development of the gaming industry gradually towards immersive experience. and VR and AR devices become the most promising products to enhance the gaming experience, which can be said to be a subversive experience. MWC Pavilion, even SK such communications vendors have launched their own virtual reality equipment, visible its popularity. In the 2015, the major mobile device manufacturers will not only further enhance the experience of the product, but also joint game manufacturers to develop for VR or AR equipment games.

In particular, another application scenario for VR devices is the immersive 3D video experience. Just imagine, the future of you, lying in bed can experience than the cinema also shook 3D or 4D movies, is cool and happy things.

In short, VR and AR devices will become the future black technology, will also become a new land of enrichment.

Iv. Other wearable equipment

In other wearable devices, Huawei has launched the smart headset N1, a headset with activity tracking capabilities. Its built-in accelerometer allows it to track the pace, has the basic dustproof waterproof function, can answer the phone by Bluetooth.

V. Summary

Wearable is destined to become the future of smart devices new darling, 2015 MWC is a new year of wearable equipment will be emerging, the major technology giants scramble to layout, this field will become a new competitive point, but also for the upcoming shuffle period to lay the foundation. For small vendors, the new field brings a lot of opportunities, but can not ignore the combination of hardware and software development, especially large data and cloud services cooperation and construction. 2015, the new layer out, all things interconnected, but the ecology has not yet formed.

Smartphone: Innovation slows China's rise

Wen/Wang Fengji

MWC 2015 is over. Because a lot of communication technology is too advanced, for ordinary people, mobile phone is their most concerned product.

Manufacturers also use MWC opportunities to launch different positioning products. Samsung and HTC issued their annual flagship products Galaxy S6/S6 Edge and HTC One M9 respectively, while the domestic manufacturers in addition to Gionee release flagship elife S7, most manufacturers due to the "schedule" relationship, did not release the flagship machine, Instead, it focuses on wearable equipment.

In the reporter's opinion, the MWC smartphone presents the following trends:

I. The slowdown in innovation and the convergence of some designs

While innovation is always there, progress in the mobile phone industry has slowed in the last one or two years. Large manufacturers in order to pursue a safe, not radical to try new technology, although the processor faster, more memory, more pixels to shoot, but the most exciting innovation did not reappear.

Six months ago, Apple adapted to the market trend, chose the big screen, and Samsung also abandoned the plastic shell, replaced by a metal frame and glass back shell. Visible at present, in some characteristics, in order to satisfy the majority of consumers preferences, the market's most powerful people will succumb.

Behind this is the mobile phone manufacturers in some design convergence, in order to avoid some kind of shortage, missed the trend by the market abandoned.

At the same time, these manufacturers have encountered a number of technical bottlenecks, such as the battery problem has not been well resolved, and in order to pursue better filming results and thin fuselage, apple Samsung at any time to offend the "obsessive-compulsive disorder", the rear camera has become prominent.

Second, explore: each way

Before the revolutionary technology has arrived, handset manufacturers are doing their own exploration, hoping to become the future "leader":

In addition to trying to launch a dual-surface-screen handset, Samsung also focuses on software, such as adding payment functions to new machines, such as focusing on business for years at the booth.

Huawei has unveiled stunning smart watches in MWC, as well as smart hand rings and headphones, in an expectation of expanding the handset extension to win over users.

and ZTE "treasure" pressure on the voice, the boss Zeng Xuzhong said voice is the most suitable man-machine interaction, and forecast this year ushered in the outbreak point. The ZTE-led "Smart Voice Alliance" also expanded in Barcelona.

In addition, LG's Couting, Motorola's deep customization. In short, manufacturers in the trend of convergence in the case, doing different directions of the attempt.

As to which way will become the future, just wait for the time to verify it.

Iii. The rise of China's power

People who have been to the show will see that the power of Chinese companies is already strong. For the mobile phone industry, as well.

Walk in the main aisle of Hall third, you will see ZTE, Huawei, Lenovo placed a beautiful booth, to the world to show their own, their vicinity is IBM, Samsung, Microsoft, Qualcomm and other manufacturers. In other halls, there are many Chinese handset manufacturers.

Behind this is the Chinese mobile phone has already made a lot of achievements abroad: ZTE in the United States sales and the mainland is similar, Huawei success in many countries, Lenovo with the acquisition of Motorola, also will move forward. And in their own opinion, they have become the world's brand.

The three also brought their own brands to Barcelona: The Glory and Nubian appeared at the booth, and Chen Xudong, head of Lenovo's magical workshop, was also active in the venue.

After a lot of "blood", Samsung HTC has not even been able to cope with domestic manufacturers of the offensive. For domestic companies, it is a wise choice to go out and find areas with higher margins.

In contrast, domestic mobile phones already have some of the conditions to go out: Through years of development, the product has been very mature, and also accumulated a lot of patents. Most importantly, due to the fierce competition in the Chinese market, many products have a high price/performance ratio.

Of course, how to make high-end handsets that compete with Samsung Apple remains a challenge in China.

(Responsible editor: Mengyishan)