E Ink announced a strategic investment in Plastic Logic HK, a fabless designer and manufacturer of flexible, glass-free electrophoretic displays (EPDs) targeted to wearables applications. The combination of E Ink’s “always-on” technology with flexible organic thin-film transistors (TFTs) is well-suited to applications for wearable technology in clothing, said E Ink Tuesday. Organic TFT technology (OTFT) offers a lightweight, “robust” backplane solution, and E Ink’s color ePaper materials used with OTFT can be an attractive display for wearable device makers, said E Ink Holdings President Johnson Lee. Plastic Logic, recently formed by Russian private equity firm Rusnano, is the only company that can mass-produce OTFT backplanes for electronic paper displays, said CEO Tim Burne. The company will leverage E Ink’s supply chain and module facility.
Wearables shipments grew 55 percent year on year in Q1, led by wrist-worn devices with 63.2 percent market share, while ear-worn devices (34.6 percent share) such as AirPods experienced the fastest growth, IDC reported Thursday. The elimination of headphone jacks and increased use of voice assistants are driving ear-worn wearables, said analyst Jitesh Ubrani. The category will become increasingly important as an “on-ramp” to wearables ecosystems that complement a smartphone “but also offer the ability to leave the phone behind when necessary,” Ubrani said. Wristwear, including watches and fitness bands, grew 32 percent, with a focus on health and fitness, IDC said. Apple continues to lead the category at 25.8 percent share with its Watch, AirPods and select Beats headphones, said the researcher, with the Watch seeing average selling price (ASP) growing to $455 from $426. Xiaomi held second position and Huawei third, at 13.3 and 10 percent, with Samsung shipping 4.3 million units, up 152 percent for 8.7 percent share, driven by Galaxy S10 smartphone bundling and low-priced JBL headphones. Fitbit rounded out the top five with 5.9 percent share, at 2.9 million shipments. The recent launch of Fitbit's Versa Lite and Inspire series devices have helped the company reach new users and encouraged upgrades at the expense of a lower ASP, said the researcher.
Austrian company USound received a $30 million equity tranche earmarked for a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) micro speaker, said to extend battery life of wireless earbuds and other wearables to 12 hours. The company’s current MEMS micro speaker offers more than 50 percent extended battery life vs. systems with electrodynamic speakers, said the company Tuesday. The next-generation technology integrates an energy recovery audio amplifier. When voltage is applied to the membrane housing the micro speakers’ lead zirconate titanate (PZT) material, crystals in the PZT expand or shrink, causing the membrane to vibrate and produce sound waves. The approach produces less heat and distortion than conventional speaker systems due to fewer moving parts, it said. USound’s products also have voice fingerprint, inherent mic functionality and analog-to-digital converters, it said.
Fitbit is offering the Charge 3 tracker as a buy-up option to participants in the UnitedHealthcare Motion walking program, it said Tuesday. The employer-sponsored wearable device walking program encourages participants to move more and to monitor activity levels, with the potential to earn more than $1,000 per year by meeting specified walking goals, Fitbit said. In 2017, the company's Charge 2 tracker was the first wearable offered as a purchase option for the program.
Bose is taking preorders on customizable replacement lenses shipping May 19 for its two styles of Bose Frames "audio sunglasses" with miniaturized electronics in each temple. Basic lenses for the Alto and Rondo styles of eyewear cost $19.95, and polarized step-up lenses are $29.95. The Frames themselves are $199.95 and produce “rich, immersive sound for you, while others hear practically nothing,” said Bose. The sunglasses appear to be available for sale now at the Bose online store. Best Buy is taking preorders for expected May 21 availability.
“Continued proliferation” of smartwatches, ear-worn devices and wristbands will help fuel a 15.3 percent increase in global wearables shipments this year to 198.5 million units, said IDC Monday. It forecasts an 8.9 percent compound annual growth rate to 279 million units by the end of 2023. “The rise of smart assistants on wearables, both wrist-worn and ear-worn, is a trend worth watching,” said IDC. "Though still in its infancy, the integration of these assistants with wearables opens up new use cases,” it said. Smartwatches were 44.2 percent of global wearables unit shipments in 2018, and IDC forecasts its share will reach 47.1 percent in 2023. “Smartwatches from Apple will undoubtedly lead the way,” and will be 27.5 percent of the smartwatch market in 2023, it said. CAGR of 0.7 percent and declining average selling prices will be dominant trends in wristbands, said IDC. “The market is already dominated by Chinese brands such as Huawei and Xiaomi, and IDC expects this to continue.”
Industry shipped nearly 105 million units of wearables globally in 2018, a 10 percent increase from 2017kiiiiilo, reported Futuresource Consulting Monday. Average selling prices are rising at a faster rate than unit growth on increasing demand for upscale smartwatches and the “parallel stagnation” of lower-priced activity trackers and sports watches, it said. Google’s recent $40 million buy of Fossil’s smartwatch patents (see 1901170054) leaves "the market anticipating a hardware release from Google or potential revamp of its Wear OS platform,” said Futuresource. It expects wearables shipments to exceed 145 million worldwide in 2022, driven "predominantly by replacement sales and the ongoing uptake of smartwatches and wireless watches.”
Public safety will see more wearables for dispatch and hardened LTE handsets in 2019, Public Safety Network co-founder Jason Karp blogged Wednesday. Other predictions: consolidation in the land-mobile radio market. “Significant strides being made in public safety LTE are putting pressure on LMR providers to innovate and rethink their legacy business models,” he said. There will be an “uptick in public safety technology startups” and public safety broadband networks will be offered in at least three other countries this year based on FirstNet's success, he said.
South Korean startup Jenax plans to use CES to showcase what it’s billing as the world’s first “true flexible battery,” emailed a spokesperson Friday. Called the J.Flex, it’s a “fast-charging, high-performance” lithium-ion battery with “broad” market applications, including IoT devices, wearables, sensors and printed electronics, she said. Executives on hand at CES will discuss “how Jenax can assist manufacturers of medical devices, automotives, apparel, electronics and more to supply a completely customized battery solution in diverse sizes and shapes with a great degree of safety,” she said. Technologies requiring “new form factors,” such as wearables, “cannot be achieved with traditional batteries,” says the company’s website. J.Flex “meets these challenges by freeing design limitations without sacrificing power,” it says.
Q3 wearable device shipments in Europe, the Middle East and Africa grew 55 percent year over year to 6.6 million units, reported IDC Friday. It’s forecasting a 66 percent increase in EMEA smartwatch shipments this year to 16.1 million units, and a doubling of shipments to 31.8 million units in 2022. Though smart wearables “continue to grow strongly in Western Europe driven by the success of smartwatches, basic wearables excelled” in Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East and Africa in Q3 on the success of Xiaomi, it said. The Chinese vendor “flooded the market with its low-end Mi Band 3 wristband,” making it a “top seller in EMEA," said IDC.