MWC observation: Wearable equipment should be "regularized"

Penguin Cool | MWC observation: Wearable equipment should be "regularized"

The annual World Communications Show is a good opportunity for industry and users to understand the development of the communications and mobile phone industry. However, unlike in previous years, wearable devices have become a new protagonist in MWC 2015.

Samsung, LG, Huawei, ZTE ... If you come to the booth of the world's leading handset makers, you will find that the most crowded areas are not mobile booths, but new products such as smart watches, hand rings and virtual reality glasses.

"The phone is no longer cool, including the iphone," a visitor with a keen interest in LG's smart watch expressed his thoughts about Penguin intelligence. Another tech enthusiast from the United States is equally optimistic about the boom in wearable devices-"when a lot of people have at least one cell phone, you have to think about what they need." ”

VR glasses: Perhaps greater than mobile phone

Penguin Cool | MWC observation: Wearable equipment should be "regularized"
At the entire MWC 2015 show, Samsung's booth was the most watched. The latest release of S6 and S6 edge flagship mobile phones is naturally the focus of Samsung in the venue, but surprisingly, more technology enthusiasts are on the scene asking Samsung staff: "Where are your gear VR glasses?"

This is a Samsung "hidden" products. Only the production of media Documents (exhibition Party certified Press identity), will be invited to the Samsung booth in an independent space, which has two staff to the media show this Samsung with the S6 series of the latest upgrade of the virtual reality glasses-waiting for the experience of the reporters lined up team.

The core function of Gear VR is to provide 3D effect and immersive entertainment experience. With this pair of glasses, you can enjoy the entertainment games and TV shows on your phone, and watch the real world through your mobile camera-yes, this helmet-style glasses need to be bundled with a Samsung phone and start a corresponding app on a phone.

There are some "glitches" in this product, for example, helmet wear or slightly heavier, not conducive to long-term use, the control wheel located between the eyebrow is too dry, difficult to operate, and some of the application of the matching is not yet perfect, such as a match with the 3D Atlas of the app, will occasionally have the phenomenon of collapse.

These glitches and immaturity may be the reason Samsung wants to "hide" it. But aside from this, we look at it from the perspective of the future and change, a product that could have a better future than Samsung's watch bracelet. There are three possible opportunities for Samsung:

Penguin Cool | MWC observation: Wearable equipment should be "regularized"
1. Subversive Experience:

Compared with other wearable products, glasses have the same maximum advantage and risk: The interactive experience is completely different from traditional digital devices. The failure of Google's glasses is here, and they want to use a new experience to do exactly the same thing in the past-texting, photographing, and even accessing social networks on glasses ... The choice of a new look at Google glasses today is tantamount to suicide.

Samsung Gear VR and a recent Microsoft launch of the holographic glasses product, have learned enough from Google glasses-so they no longer require glasses to do what they do on the phone, but they offer a whole new kind of subversive experience--When you watch video through VR glasses, what you see is no longer a picture, But the whole world. As you head down and sway around, the image you see will follow the action smoothly. When I was at the scene through Gear VR to enjoy a piece of undersea scenery video-there was really a moment when I felt like I was in the water.

2. Marginal Price and product mix:

Because of the need to bundle the latest Samsung mobile phone use, so Gear VR is not a complete product, but more like a mobile phone to grow out of a wearable extension accessories. This positioning determines that its pricing is not too high, if you buy the entire set of products, in addition to cool glasses, you also have a stylish flagship mobile phone.

The biggest generalization of virtual reality devices in the past is that their usage scenarios are not all-weather. Many users are unwilling to pay a high price for a thing they wear for a while at leisure on weekends. Samsung, through the combination of eyeglasses accessories and mobile phones, has largely solved the embarrassment.

3. New Business Opportunities:

We use mobile phones to play games and watch videos, often not because their images or experiences are better, but because they are convenient. The virtual glasses represented by Gear VR are likely to break through this long-standing bottleneck in the mobile phone-the immersive 3D experience, which has the potential to subvert traditional theater viewing and large PC or host games.

If one day you find that all of Hollywood blockbusters offer virtual reality glasses at the same time, and it's expensive, you'll understand what Samsung is doing today.

Smart watch: Pack ahead to defend Apple Watch

Penguin Cool | MWC observation: Wearable equipment should be "regularized"
Another wearable craze on MWC this year is smart watches. Huawei launched the day before the opening of the Watch to ignite the flame, in the subsequent exhibition, LG, Samsung, Huawei, ZTE and other manufacturers, in an important position to the world to promote their own watch products.

Another important backdrop to the smart watch boom, of course, is that Apple announced a March 9 launch that would likely release more information about Apple's watch.

An interesting phenomenon is that almost all the manufacturers of smart watches are intentionally or unintentionally showing the "differentiation" with the Apple Watch. Huawei's watch is a round dial that looks more like Moto 360--, a product rated as "probably better than an Apple Watch"; LG is also a round dial and offers 3 physical buttons (more than apples), and they also drive an Audi car that can start the engine through a watch ...

ZTE's smart watch is more special. Their watches are really a watch-the hands and the dials on the screen are true-the smart watch is a traditional dial and an intelligent chip and sensor grafting product, its intelligence can be linked to mobile phones, testing the state of motion and so on-but you do not expect its dial will have a variety of content.

These three kinds of smart watch products, almost represent the MWC this year, and even the entire industry for smart watches overall attitude and research and development trends-as far as Apple, as possible and different from the mobile phone, and have the independent value of cell phone function.

1. Round dial:

It's not that Apple Watches are square, others have to be round--but from the current trend, round dials are more natural and aesthetically pleasing from the look, UI, and interactive switching. As a result, the future trend of smart watches will be more circular, as for whether Apple will abandon its obsession with a round dial-the time of the jobs may not be possible, but Cook is not very good to say.

2. Independent value from mobile phone:

Smart watch more beginning to show "independent consciousness", which is undoubtedly a correct choice. Early smart watch more positioning in the mobile phone "second screen", usually receive text messages, phone calls ... This product set from the current look does not capture the user's needs, so has been tepid. Of course, there are some extreme players directly to the watch as a mobile phone, very anti-human.

The latest wave of smart watch products has opted for another route--and mobile phone linkage becomes an optional function, but no longer necessary. This kind of new product will add a separate network component to the watch, such as WiFi, SIM cards, and more sensors and chip devices – when smart watches start to become new eco-centers, people can begin to take such products seriously--click on the wrist, what happens to the world?

3. Become a control center:

The third trend of smart watches is to provide more extended connection functions and play the role of "Controller". LG allows smart watches to start cars, which is replacing car keys with watches-which used to have similar settings, but apparently the watch is closer to the key than the phone in terms of shape and control.

The same possibility will appear in more areas. such as intelligent door locks, smart home and so on. Whether you lie in bed, turn off the lights, or close the kitchen stove remotely in the living room--The watches are a better choice than the phone.

Summary: Wearable equipment to be "positive"

The biggest problem that can be worn in the past is the strong "mobile thinking" in product design. This has to do with the main players are mobile phone manufacturers have a big relationship. People define wearable devices as the "second screen" of mobile phones, and take it for granted that "wearable devices are used when they are not convenient to take out their phones" ... Now think about how blindly optimistic and unrealistic the expectations of this use scenario are.

When we are worried about the future of wearable equipment, this year's MWC Congress has finally made new changes.

More smart watches and bracelets begin to say goodbye to the "mobile-centric theory", which is more independent, has a self application scenario, and begins to have an initial "ecological awareness".

Gear VR and other virtual spectacle devices provide a greater space for wearable devices. The failure of Google glasses has left many people questioning and arguing about whether glasses can be intelligent at all--Apple has played a particularly critical role, and the CEO of the world's largest technology company says the intelligence of eyeglasses is not interactive.

But Samsung Gear VR and other immersive virtual reality devices, opening new windows for smart glasses--smart glasses are by no means "another mobile phone," which is more business-wide, more connected and more exciting to see.

In fact, the ultimate mission of wearable equipment may be two: to make it easier for people to connect to the outside world by wearing them and to get people to know themselves better by wearing them.

The latter mission has taken the first step through various chips and sensors, next is the information tracking processing and visualization, precision of the results presented, the road is logically clear, and because of this, all wearable equipment manufacturers and users have more applicable to the product Information acquisition module, basically no dispute;

The previous mission has more variables and possibilities. In the future, people and people, people and things, things and things, wearable equipment can play a role, not only related to supporting the industry chain and technology of the maturing, but also the need for ambitious products to make more courageous exploration.