Wearable equipment: Cross-border leading to long industrial chains or risks

by the Internet queen Marie Mickel

Can browse the web of glasses, can send and receive information of watches, with GPS positioning System shoes ... Scenes that have only appeared in sci-fi movies have become accessible as wearable devices hit. The "star" of the "third cycle" of the internet developed by the "Internet Queen" Meeker, the most attractive thing is not just equipment, whether investors or entrepreneurs, they focus on the point is: equipment is only the entrance to data collection, combined with the user to provide personalized service is the King!

"Wrist" monitor health

The heat of wearable equipment is needless to say, looking at the wearable equipment that has been marketed or will come to market, it will find an interesting phenomenon: almost all the first moves into wearable equipment, landed on the wrist, and the health field as a cut.

From f itbit smart wrist strap, jaw boneu p smart hand ring to n Ike+fuelband, thump hand ring, grand nutshell of G Eark watch ... The hand ring is an intensely competitive battlefield.

In the interview, many people in the industry think that the wrist is indeed the most suitable position.

"The wrist is the most suitable part and the user will be more convenient to use." "Shenpo founder of the South are reporters said, a splash net to do wearable equipment, the early product similar to a M P3, with clips clamped on the body, when we all feel inconvenient, often forget to take." What do we do? Reasoning team of the consensus is that wear on the hand, such as hand ring, the user is not only not easy to forget to wear, and will not disturb life, along this line of thought, thump hand ring before the final shape. "To join the technology elements of the hand ring, itself or fashion sports decorations, young people are willing to accept." ”

Connow co-founder Guo Hui also agreed that some users have watches, jewelry and other wearing habits, here to add a device, easy to be accepted by users. In addition, the upper wrist veins, blood pressure, blood sugar, blood oxygen, heart rate, body temperature and other important values can be monitored.

In fact, there are many points outside the wrist to be excavated. Like drum t-shirts, social jeans, glove-type mobile phones, Google's "talking shoes" this year, the "ring" of the nutshell, have wearable products from head to toe, and even invented wearable equipment for pets.

In application, wearable equipment is mainly used in the field of health.

In the Grand Nutshell CEO Guxiaobin, "This is a public interest point, from which the risk is relatively small." He said the wearable equipment on the wrist could monitor the health of the individual in real time, including the Geark Watch, which had just begun to sell, and the use of watches for sleep, heartbeat, body temperature, and blood pressure monitoring.

A successful precedent is also a reason for companies that try to wear products in the health sector.

For example, Fitbito ne is an expensive pedometer, priced at $99, which not only has a sporting health boom among users, but it has just won a 30 million-dollar venture a few months ago. Last year pebble smart watches won tens of millions of dollars in funding in a very short period of time through the platform for pay. And in May this year only landed China's jaw Boneu p hand ring, also be sought after, in Jingdong, Taobao and other sites often in the state of no goods. It can be seen that wearable products into the health field feasibility.

Service triggers the market

Wearable devices are attractive, it's the way it clings to the body, it can be used to measure every sign, like n ike+ sneakers that can record where you've been, Fitbit and jaw Boneu P can write down the number of steps you walk every day, monitor your sleep, and present the data.

However, according to a joke in the industry: leaving the data to support, wearable equipment is a common toy.

"Hardware is only a small part of the entire process of wearable equipment." "Gobi investment partner Ken told South all reporters that around the user-specific needs in the service model to have greater imagination space." Angel investor Wang Lijie also pointed out that the main business logic and value of wearable equipment are in the cloud, that is, data mining, services. Reflected in the profit model, the sale of hardware equipment is obvious, thump hand ring, nutshell G Eark Watch, jaw Boneu p bracelet and other market wearable equipment, almost all expensive, but the future of personalized services more imaginative.

Of course, this data collection is critical.

"This May, jaw bone acquired a company BodyMedia focused on wearable equipment and the fitness market. In addition to do in vitro sensor also integrates the physical signs sensor. Why? A simple wearable device has a low user's continued use. Guo Hui said that jaw bone found in practice that many people wear bracelet for a month or two, rarely more than three months, since these data are difficult to form a closed loop for discovery, disposal, evaluation, and are irrelevant. "Good wearable equipment to detect physical problems, but many devices do not collect data, it is difficult to find physical problems." No, no one knows, and the evaluation can't be realized. ”

Guo Hui that there are roughly two ways to establish contrast standards. At present, the main use of sensors to collect, this easy to establish, low-cost, but the future data must be related to physical signs, it is not difficult to understand why Jaw-bone spent 100 million U.S. dollars to buy Bodym edia. "Jaw-bone's equipment I used, their physical signs the sensor collects the data, but does not carry on the analysis, also through the data completes the modelling process. He also said that the products currently seen in the data analysis has not started, including for users of the movement, sleep advice, mostly from the foreign sports laboratories, sleep laboratories to buy the corresponding data analysis and services. "There is no corresponding data accumulation in the professional field, resulting in no way to form a data analysis model." "He expects the next 5-10 years, wearable equipment will form a complete industrial chain, from data collection, data storage and increase, data analysis, to analysis after the disposal of the upstream and downstream relationship."

In fact, entrepreneurs are also well aware that data determines personalized services and puts future profits on the service.

According to Shenpo introduced, thump hand ring personalized service is when the data reached a certain scale, the network will be with health management, such as Third-party professional firms, when users have to lose weight and other needs, professional firms to combine the user data, with the guidance of the background fitness coaches, to provide one-to-one value-added services. Taking diabetes as an example, the equipment can monitor the user's blood glucose change data, the network can be combined with medical institutions to analyze the data, how to control, treatment and so on.

Guxiaobin's idea is the same as Shenpo's. He revealed that the shell G Eark Watch will also collect data to build a third-party cooperative health services, for the user's health to give advice. "But the final manifestation of the watch is not the same as the phone." The most intuitive is that the screen size is different, but also need to adjust, but these things are doing. ”

So, if the early days of the mobile phone era only focus on hardware thinking, do not do personalized service what? In fact, there have been many examples of failure. In 2011, for example, a giant mobile phone company has produced smart watches, which monitor the user's heartbeat and running routes, and other sports information, but in a mediocre service, the market is flat, and then the price is down 100 dollars.

Cross-border or lead risk

Because wearable equipment is still fresh in kind, it is very popular at the same time, there is also the voice of doubt. For example, how far can the market road go?

Price and shape are the most intuitive "spit point."

Jaw Boneu p smart hand ring in China, the price is 1100 yuan, the shell G Eark Watch pre-sale Price is 1999 Yuan ... The price of wearable equipment is generally not low. "Price is a big problem, many parts of the equipment are customized, at the beginning of the price will be relatively high." "Guxiaobin said, the price and the purchase quantity is related, the purchase quantity is big, the unit price also is down, along with the wearable technology and the market expands, the price high will not be the main problem."

Wang Lijie is concerned with fashion. "Can wear Daysiang for our traditional IT products, but also a fashion factor, which we used to many engineers do not have, they may never have to pay themselves to buy a LV bag packaging computer." He said to the South reporters that wearable equipment to wear on the body, whether it is exposed outside or hidden inside, are required fashion elements, this is a challenge.

At the same time, he also pointed out that wearable devices are generally connected to the Internet through smartphones, and smartphones end as front-end data collection and preprocessing of a transit point is also essential, after all, can not make wearable devices themselves with sophisticated intelligent systems. Even so, wearable equipment is also challenging in industrial design and system integration, with the thickness, weight, energy, safety, ease of use, and even the friendliness of the material and skin contact to be considered.

Cross-border industry chain length is also a risk that cannot be neglected.

Despite the prospect of a wearable device, Ken is still worried that it will be much more challenging than any other company in the industry. "Because it spans the production, sales, software, hardware, the chain is very long." "He said to reporters in the south, this for the previous software companies, to join the hardware production, sales processes, channels, user feedback and other fields is a small challenge. At the same time, the software superposition and update is very strong, but wearable equipment companies this is difficult to do, so it is necessary to face a small challenge.