Smart Hand Ring: cannon fodder or the future?

When the internet has finished expanding its virtual world, we see it extending to reality, changing traditional industries, or changing people. Last year, for example, the big hot internet mentality was the former, and the smart hardware now prized by the Giants symbolizes the future of the latter.

Compared to the secret wrestling between Apple and Google on smart watches, technology more simple maturity of the smart hand ring has become the domestic smart hardware manufacturers fight the battlefield, the recent micro-letter is a win over the thump, Huawei and other companies, began to dabble in the smart hand ring market, making the smart hand ring for a time to become the topic of focus.

But the question is, what are we talking about when we talk about the smart bracelet in the tide of wearable equipment and how many nude swimmers are there?

The wild hope of the micro-letter

From the two mandatory requirements of the micro-letter (which must be added to the list and the rights function), Tencent clearly does not want to rely on technology like Baidu, or as Ali generally rely on capital operation to intervene in the smart wear market, micro-letter wants a game by themselves to set up the rules of the ecology, which is similar to Apple, Google's ideas.

In the concept of micro-letters, different smart hand ring users will use the micro-letter of the unified portal, eliminating the previous single download app trouble. and the list of functions can be the role of micro-credit social properties in this ecological amplification, and even by the circle of friends to complete further transmission, thereby expanding the user base.

In a sense, the micro-credit game has already relied on such a way to achieve a big outbreak, Tencent 23% in the first quarter of the net income growth to a large extent from this. But the problem is different from the virtual game, hand ring as a real product, the problem is obviously more complex, so the micro-letter also forced to add a after-sale function to standardize the product ecology, to avoid the bad user experience like the Jawbone style. However, some problems are obviously not after the sale can be resolved, such as user continuous use, user activity and so on.

And Apple, Google compared to the problem is not their own operating system ecology, or even like Baidu to take out a set of Baidu cloud technology support, which also determines that it can only be from the smart hand ring, so simple and do not need how much ecological support products to start. And Apple and Google can rely on smartphones to complete the extension from mobile smart terminals to wearable smart devices, providing users with a richer product experience.

And the function of single also precisely determines the smart hand ring market now and future need to face many problems. However, perhaps that is not Tencent and micro-letter need attention, they have to do is to use the micro-letter of the huge user base and active degree, to preempt such an ecological entrance, as for the construction of this ecological is the intelligent hand ring, or intelligent water cups, scales, sphygmomanometer is not really important.

However, "Beauty to Cry" Moto early 360 has quietly in the Beijing East has a product page, Android wear into the domestic market time is likely to be ahead of the expected, leaving the micro-letter policy dividend period may not be long. When a shallow-layer ecosystem of micro-letters meets more sophisticated Android Wear, there is little chance of success if there is not enough user base and platform barriers.

Is the bracelet going to be okay?

Maybe the future is really a world of smart hardware, but I'm afraid the bracelet is not the key.

As mentioned earlier, the function of the intelligent hand ring is too single, the simple function of measuring the steps and detecting the sleep is obviously contradictory to the user's increasing function experience demand. These requirements are not the rigid needs of the user, but the active demand arising out of interest, and it is easy to lose freshness with time. Even with the list function of a micro-social relationship, imagine that there are still a lot of people around them who are "flying" every day.

In the eyes of many doctors, intelligent hand ring is regarded as a toy generally, based on the body dynamic recorder of the intelligent hand ring can not accurately and scientifically complete the analysis of sleep quality, now the intelligent hand ring in the function can only be regarded as the popular version of the Professional sports Watch and network version.

This uncertainty also determines that the user behavior itself is not serious, relying on data monitoring to effectively urge themselves to improve sleep quality and exercise situation is even more difficult. Frankly speaking, this kind of thing is decided by the personal character and the perseverance, that is a small hand ring can solve the problem.

As with the information provided by Guoren, the author of the hardware, many of the smart hand ring OEM manufacturer's offer has dropped to 9 U.S. dollars, low cost of low quality determines the market is likely to flow at the low-end level of competition. And the previous industry friends said that the three or four-line market on the intelligent hand ring is more active than the first market, 399 yuan is its acceptable price.

But the problem is that the battle on the wrist is never a haven for the lowest bidder, the items worn in this position often symbolize a person's taste, status, economic strength and many other factors, which makes the Jawbone, Fitbit and unborn iwatch and Moto 360 able to obtain a very high premium.

Single function, the low price and bad street trend of the smart hand ring is becoming a user to meet the new sense of the transitional intelligent toys, although we see some like Huawei B1 to try to expand the function of the smart hand ring, and the smart phone to the ecological integration of the attempt. But in the face of the surging tide of innovation, isolation from a single smart bracelet may not really go too far in the end.

As with all the innovations of the past, when we all talk about it, perhaps the best time for it has already passed, and the real opportunity belongs to only a few people see.