So, why smart rings?

Although the watch market has grown significantly, each company has become highly homogenized. The watches launched by iQOO/OnePlus can basically be regarded as rebranded versions of vivo/OPPO products. The monitoring categories of each company in health, sleep, exercise and other aspects are different. Even the fall detection function previously launched by Apple has been used as a reference by Android watches. The latest trend is to launch a "hardcore" model similar to Apple Watch Ultra and focusing on outdoor scenes.

In fact, in addition to the homogenization of watch/bracelet form/function, the retro trend of more and more consumers choosing to wear mechanical watches has also become a reason affecting the development of wristband devices.

How to find a wearable device that is novel, secretive, and can monitor body data in addition to watches/bracelets and traditional mechanical watches?

At this time, smart rings have become a relatively optimal choice.

In fact, not only Samsung, but Apple has also been exposed to be developing smart ring products. Since 2015, it has been applying for patents for such devices. It is rumored that it will be officially released on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Apple Watch (2024).

In addition, Oura, founded in 2013, has also been focusing on the research and development of smart rings. It has reached cooperation with major sports events such as NBA, WNBA, UFC and F1 to monitor and protect the health of athletes.
The integration and large-scale implementation of AI and wearable devices still have bottlenecks
From the current implementation and application situation, the three major mainstream terminal products, TWS headphones, smart watches, and AR smart glasses, have been equipped with AI technology. However, AI+ wearable devices are still in the market exploration stage where various "small devices" grow freely, and there are still obstacles to scale.
First, the functions of smart wearable devices overlap and are exploratory products. Products such as bracelets, watches, and rings all focus on social functions and health detection functions such as breathing, heart rate, and sleep. Even if they have different forms, there is no obvious difference in their functional cores. It can be said that it is still unclear what form of equipment will be popular and profitable in the future. Manufacturers are testing the market's response in the process of continuously launching new forms of products. Second, the product positioning of smart wearable devices is below that of mobile phones and PCs, and there is a lack of a main force dedicated to opening up new territories. Wearable devices are mostly manufactured by mobile phone manufacturers. Data shows that the top five wearable device manufacturers in the world are Apple, Imagine Marketing, Xiaomi, Samsung and Huawei, with a combined market share of more than 50%. These manufacturers are more based on the extension of mobile phone functions to develop wearable devices. In this case, smart wearable devices lack their own "main force", and their research and development will inevitably be squeezed by the main business of mobile phone manufacturers, affecting the release of market potential. Third, the computing power on the end side is still the biggest bottleneck for AI to land wearable devices. At present, the problem of insufficient computing power on the end side has become the main constraint on the development of AI on the end side. Even on mobile phones and PCs, the computing power of the NPU cannot fully meet the smooth operation requirements of large models on the end side, not to mention wearable devices with higher requirements in terms of size, power consumption, cost, etc. Previously, the so-called "native AI devices" including AI Pin and Rabbit R1 had various problems such as inaccurate recognition, slow response, and fever, proving that under the current technical conditions, insufficient computing power on the end side will have a direct impact on the user experience, resulting in a significant decline in the market competitiveness of the product.

 

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