On the iPhone 7 series released in 2016, Apple cut the 3.5mm headphone jack and released the first generation of AirPods. Driven by Apple, the cancellation of the 3.5 mm headphone jack has gradually become a trend in the smartphone industry, in this context, the use of more convenient and comfortable TWS headphones has been developed rapidly, and shipments reached 129 million units in 2019.
After several years of development, the TWS headset industry has gradually moved from infancy to maturity. But the TWS headset industry in 2021 is a little flat, lacking both heavyweight products and new technologies or new features that will make people shine. In this year, manufacturers pay more attention to the improvement of product functions, decentralize some technologies, and achieve the purpose of consolidating the development of other product lines.
Next, let's review the TWS headset market in 2021, see what important events occurred in the TWS headset industry last year, and discuss the relevant technical characteristics and future development trends of the industry.
2021 TWS headset market important event inventory
Last year,s TWS headset market has a lot of major events, the release of some important products and the new layout of manufacturers, are affecting the development of TWS headsets and the formation of the market pattern.
1. To further seize the market, Apple released AirPods 3
Apple's update to the AirPods product line has always been relatively Buddhist, there is no particularly fixed time law, some are two years, and some have not been updated after release, which also affects the sales of AirPods. Market research agency Canalys released the third quarter of 2021 global TWS headphone shipment data show that Apple TWS headphone sales are still the first, but shipments fell by 33.7% year-on-year, in order to further seize the market, Apple in the fourth quarter of last year brought users' long-awaited AirPods 3.
As a product that has only been updated after two years, AirPods 3 has ushered in a new upgrade from appearance to function. AirPods 3 looks like an AirPods Pro that has been unplugged, adding spatial audio and IPX4 waterproofing to the function, for the previous generation of products, the airPods 3 upgrade is larger, at least so that users can clearly perceive the changes in the appearance and function of the product.
Comments: In the AirPods product line, Apple has followed the upgrade strategy of the iPhone and iPad, delegating some of the technologies and functions of the flagship products, but maintaining a certain upgrade span, so that different products form a core generation gap, AirPods 3 does not have the most core noise reduction function on the Pro. Apple's intention to upgrade is also obvious, mainly to promote spatial audio through the lower starting price of AirPods 3, so that this special experience can infect more users, and then improve the stickiness of the product.
At the market level, the release of AirPods 3 is also a powerful response to challengers. In recent years, many manufacturers have adopted a multi-product strategy to impact the TWS headset market, releasing about three new products a year to attract consumers, and Apple's response is very direct, hitting back at other manufacturers with the differentiated experience of spatial audio. Guo Mingxi, an apple analyst at Tianfeng Securities, has said that "AirPods shipments in the fourth quarter of 2021 are better than expected", obviously, including AirPods 3.
2. In another way, Huawei released FreeBuds Lipstick to impact the high-end women's market
In the past period of time, the TWS headset market is relatively dull, mainly because with the maturity of the market and supply chain, TWS headsets have appeared product homogenization trend, most products in the experience is difficult to perceive the obvious difference, the appearance of headphones is also similar. Huawei's FreeBuds Lipstick, released in November last year, has added some new vitality to the TWS headset market with its new design.
Huawei FreeBuds Lipstick looks like a lipstick, but Huawei did not ignore the hardware and functions of the headphones because of the appearance, the product uses a 14.3 mm large dynamic sound unit, and supports semi-open active noise reduction technology, so that such a semi-in-ear headphones can also have noise reduction functions.
Comments: Huawei FreeBuds Lipstick's product positioning can be described as "poisonous", bypassing the fiercely competitive high-end TWS noise-canceling headphone market, choosing high-end female users as the main target object, their perception of headphone functions is not so strong, more concerned about design and workmanship.
The maturity of an industry often gives birth to many products for segments, and the past TWS headsets are more extended to the game field. The arrival of Huawei FreeBuds Lipstick has given other manufacturers new development ideas, on the one hand, it reminds other manufacturers that the design of TWS headphones can be more diverse and more diverse, on the other hand, design changes are an important way to enhance product premiums, and some brands do not have to only take the old road of upgrading hardware and dare not raise prices to rush to the high-end.
3. TWS headphone market shipments are still rising, but the growth rate has slowed down
After a period of rapid growth from 2016 to 2019, the TWS headset shipments this year, although still rising, have slowed down. Canalys' report shows that the growth rate of global TWS headphone shipments in the second and third quarters of 2021 was only 1.3% and 6.4%, respectively, which slowed down a lot compared with the previous double-digit growth rate, of which not only Apple's TWS headphone shipments were declining in the third quarter, but even Xiaomi, which is known for its cost performance, also showed a double-digit decline (21.3%).
Comments: The slowdown in market growth indicates that the TWS headset industry has been saturated to a certain extent, and the purchase demand of users for TWS headsets is decreasing. The author believes that the slowdown in the growth rate of the TWS headset market is only temporary, but in order to stimulate users to buy new products, it is necessary for the supply chain and manufacturers to come up with new technologies and new designs, that is, the growth rate of the TWS headset market also has a certain periodicity, with the improvement of technology and other aspects.
On the other hand, in order to increase sales of TWS headphones, many manufacturers are launching products with lower starting prices, further reducing the purchase threshold of TWS headphones. The Strategy Analytics report states that wholesale prices for TWS headphones are expected to be 19% lower in 2021 than in 2020. In fact, the development of TWS headphones is similar to that of smart phones, and there is still a period of downward popularization after the market growth slowdown, and then it will really touch the industry ceiling.
4. New and old brands have entered the game, and the TWS headset industry has become more and more lively
In 2021, the TWS headset industry is particularly lively, in addition to mobile phone manufacturers, new brands and old brands in the audio industry continue to enter the game, so that consumers have more products to choose from. In early 2021, The British veteran audio brand Marshall brought its first TWS headset, Marshall Mode II, whose casing is manufactured using a leather-like process to highlight the uniqueness of the product.
After OnePlus co-founder Pei Yu officially left OnePlus, the first product Nothing ear (1) released by its technology company Nothing was also a TWS headset. The special feature of Nothing ear (1) is that the headphone handle and charging case are transparent design, which greatly enhances the technological sense of the product.
Comments: As mentioned earlier, TWS headphones have a trend of product homogenization, so new and old brands tend to work design when they enter the game. However, it is worth noting that behind the increasingly lively TWS headset industry, there may be a crisis of industry adjustment, as mainstream mobile phone manufacturers launch more products at different price points, users may be more inclined to choose the same brand of TWS headphones based on the ecological factor, under the Matthew effect, new manufacturers still need to work product experience and differentiation, after all, for technology digital products, ultimately rely on experience to retain users.
5. Dark Horse appeared, and boAt ranked fourth in the global TWS headset market in terms of sales
Just when many users believe that the global TWS headset market pattern has been solidified, the rapid rise of boAt with the trend of dark horses proves that the TWS headset market is still full of many possibilities.
In the third quarter of this year, wearable device manufacturer boAt shipments from India grew by 225.5%, ranking fourth in the world with 2.8 million units in a single quarter, second only to Xiaomi's 4.9 million units. The rapid development of boAt is related to its affordable product strategy, most of which are concentrated in the range of 30-250 yuan, which meets the needs of local users for low-cost TWS headphones.
Comments: The rapid rise of boAt shows that TWS headphones still have a large room for growth in some emerging markets. For domestic TWS headphone brands, taking the initiative to go to sea to find new growth points is a good way to break the bottleneck of sales.
In the author's view, TWS headphones is not a high threshold industry, which gives many brands the opportunity to enter the market, in some emerging markets, manufacturers are not fighting for product design and technology content, but brand management, distribution channels and after-sales support. The rise of boAt is not accidental, with the further improvement of its supply and marketing system in the local market, boAt is entirely likely to rush to the third place in the global TWS headphone sales in 2022.
Technical features of TWS headphones in 2021
TWS headsets are very similar to digital products such as mobile phones and tablets, and the kernel is a technology-driven improvement of the user experience. However, TWS headphones are different from other products, limited by the available space of internal land, TWS headphone industry attaches great importance to the upgrading of supply chain technology or manufacturers' self-developed technology.
The TWS headset market in 2021 is taking the "technology popularization" route, delegating some of the original "high-cold" technologies to more product lines, so that more users can enjoy the new fun and convenience of technology upgrades.
1. Computational acoustics began to gain popularity
In the past, ordinary headphones were like a sound transmission unit, only responsible for transmitting and playing sound, and with TWS headphones equipped with chips with a certain computing power, and with gyroscopes and acceleration sensors and other components, making such TWS headphones have a qualitative leap in function and experience compared with traditional Bluetooth headphones, and developed spatial audio and 360-degree sound effects and other functions.
Spatial audio was originally an exclusive feature of Apple's AirPods Pro and AirPods Max, but in 2021 Apple delegated it to AirPods 3, directly promoting the popularity of spatial audio features. On the Android side, Xiaomi also brought its own spatial audio function in the third quarter of last year, the main support device is "Xiaomi True Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones 3 Pro", and its implementation principle of spatial audio is similar to Apple, all of which are software and hardware cooperation of chips, algorithms and gyroscopes.
In addition to spatial audio, 360-degree sound is also gradually beginning to appear on high-end TWS headphones. The 360-degree surround sound on Samsung's Galaxy Buds Pro uses Dolby head tracking technology to track the user's head movement and locate the direction of the sound through sensors, similar to spatial audio, which enhances the user's sense of presence.
The author believes that the popularity of spatial audio and 360-degree sound has a certain "latecomer" feature, such as AirPods Pro did not have a spatial audio function at the beginning, and the new firmware of the headphones and iOS 14 that Apple subsequently pushed added support for spatial audio. That is to say, some of the TWS headphones equipped with the corresponding chips and sensors, in the later stage, there is a possibility of upgrading spatial audio or 360-degree surround sound, which mainly depends on the manufacturer's algorithm improvement and the adaptation of third-party software manufacturers, and the author also expects that more manufacturers will push the upgraded firmware of spatial audio in 2022, but mainly for high-end TWS headphones.
2. Wireless charging and waterproof function "sink" to the 100-yuan TWS headset market
For many users of TWS headphones, wireless charging and waterproofing is a "dessert" function, which can not be used under normal circumstances, but when it is needed in some scenarios, wireless charging and waterproofing can greatly enhance the user's experience.
In the past, wireless charging and waterproofing were the standard equipment of some TWS headphones, which was a major functional difference point between high-end TWS headphones and low-cost products. But in the 2021 TWS headset market, wireless charging and waterproof functions have begun to "sink", the author learned after querying that some 100-yuan TWS headphones have supported Qi wireless charging or IPX5 level waterproof standards, such as QCY and Beth and other manufacturers of several products, of which, some third-party TWS headset manufacturers are more enthusiastic about promoting these two functions in low-cost product lines.
Personally, I believe that the popularity of wireless charging and waterproofing in the low-cost TWS headset market has two main reasons. On the one hand, the maturity of the supply chain has reduced the cost of decentralization of wireless charging modules, and some manufacturers are also trying to average costs by impulse.
On the other hand, the CR3 rate of the global TWS market reached 43% in the third quarter of 2021, and the top three manufacturers are all mobile phone brands. At the same time, in 2021, the TWS headset market is still dominated by low-price range products, and third-party manufacturers with weak influence in the field of TWS headphones can only embark on the road of stacking or price reduction in order to survive.
3. Multi-device interconnection is the trend of the times
In terms of convenience of use, multi-device interconnection should be one of the main advantages of TWS headphones over traditional wired headphones, although TWS headphones do not have a connection line, but still can only be used one-on-one connection with the device, want to switch the playback device need to be disconnected again. Some manufacturers have optimized the reconnection step of TWS headphones, but they still require users to actively click on the connection, and they cannot do the insensitive series experience.
More special is Apple, under the blessing of iCloud ecology and H1 chip, AirPods can be seamlessly connected in series under different Apple devices, without the need to manually switch Bluetooth. Other brands of TWS headphones also began to popularize similar technologies in 2021, but it should be noted that non-AirPods TWS headphones can only connect two devices at the same time, such as a mobile phone plus a computer, and still need to be manually switched when connecting more devices.
Other brands of TWS headphones are not as good as Apple in terms of multi-device interconnection capabilities, but the implementation cost of the program is low, which is conducive to the promotion of low-cost product lines, and some TWS headphones in the early 100 yuan in 2021 support multi-device interconnection. In the author's opinion, in addition to Apple, other brands of TWS headphones want to achieve more sensorless connection of devices, not only to solve the software ecology, but also to develop a master control chip that takes into account both performance and endurance.
Apple's H1 chip is based on a 7-nanometer process, and some foreign media say that the performance of H1 is close to that of the A4 chip of the iPhone 4. The main control chips used by other manufacturers are mostly using tens of nanometer process processes, the author in the review of Hengxuan (market share of more than 30%), Loda and Juxin three main control chip suppliers of the official website and data found that the 28-nanometer process has been considered "advanced process", many chips are still using 40nm + process. There are many products that use Bluetooth master control chips, not all products need cutting-edge process chips, but under the trend of computational acoustics and multi-device interconnection, flagship master chips based on cutting-edge process manufacturing are still a necessity for high-end TWS headphones.
TWS Headset Industry Outlook for 2022
There have been many new changes in the TWS headset market in 2021, there are dark horses in the industry, there are various new technologies popularized, and the entry of some new and old brands has also added a lot of highlights to the TWS headset market in the new year. Next, the author will look forward to the TWS headset market in 2022 from three aspects.
1. More and more TWS headphones will adopt personalized design
In the initial stage of the development of TWS headphones, the color of mainstream TWS headphones is mostly black and white gray, although there are some new colors in the future, but the design and color matching of mainstream products have not made too many breakthroughs, taking the mainstream flagship TWS headphones of Huawei, Xiaomi, vivo and OPPO four major manufacturers as an example, the main color matching is still dominated by black and white color matching, and Apple is more simple and has been insisting on using white.
With the maturity of the market, there may be more manufacturers in the TWS headphones to adopt new designs and new colors, there are already many TWS headphones with personalized design on the market. However, for mainstream manufacturers, in the design of TWS headphones will still maintain a certain restraint, headphones are after all worn on the ear of the product, too personalized or exaggerated design is difficult to meet the mainstream user base aesthetics, low color saturation of the Morandi color system or more popular with mainstream manufacturers.
However, mainstream manufacturers can open up new product lines, such as Huawei FreeBuds Lipstick, which is only aimed at high-end female users. For other small and medium-sized TWS manufacturers, the brand is not too constrained, and it is possible to use personalized design to enhance the attractiveness of the product.
2. Low-priced TWS noise-canceling headphones will be more popular
In 2021, the mainstream brand's TWS noise-canceling headphones have come to the price range of two or three hundred, mainly representing the manufacturer's main cost-effective Redmi. For ordinary TWS headphone users, the noise reduction function is very obvious, which is also one of the main motivations for them to replace the new TWS headphones.
In addition to Redmi, some manufacturers have pressed the price of TWS noise-canceling headphones to the range of two hundred yuan, such as realme and QCY products, according to such a rapid development momentum, in 2021 TWS noise-canceling headphones or will come to the hundred-dollar range. At this stage, in fact, the low-cost range of TWS headphones can not do much change, nothing more than multi-terminal interconnection and noise reduction, the author feels that the TWS headphone industry is becoming more and more fierce market competition, so that some manufacturers have to consider the cost of compression below the noise reduction technology, 2022 100 yuan TWS noise reduction headphones development, or will be led by third-party headphone manufacturers.
3. The high-end development of domestic mobile phone manufacturerS headphones
Users who pay attention to the TWS headset industry should be able to feel that some of the TWS headset products launched by domestic mobile phone brands have become more expensive, and in the past, in order to compete for the market, they will choose to launch cost-effective products at low and medium prices, but in the past two years, there have been new changes. In addition to Huawei, manufacturers such as Xiaomi and OPPO have launched their own flagship TWS headphone products, raising the price to 600 yuan + price segment, and some starting at nearly 1,000 yuan.
OPPO, which has previously released high-end TWS headphones, will also have a flagship product in 2022. According to the news revealed by Liu Bao, head of OPPO's audio business department, to 36Kr, oppo wireless headphones will sell more than 10 million worldwide in 2021, and will release a flagship product with sound quality black technology as the main selling point in the next year.
Domestic mobile phone manufacturers released higher-priced flagship TWS headphones, mainly affected by the development of high-end hardware ecology and market growth slowdown. First, the high-end TWS headset market has long been controlled by Apple, and domestic mobile phone manufacturers also care about this more profitable market, not only that, some veteran audio headset manufacturers with their own brand influence and tuning accumulation launched high-priced TWS headphones, but also to seize the high-end TWS headset market. Considering the hardware ecology of high-end TWS headphones and high-end mobile phones, as well as the high-end TWS headphone market representing high profits, some domestic mobile phone manufacturers have launched an impact on the high-end TWS headphone market.
Second, the growth rate of domestic TWS headphone shipments has slowed down, in order to avoid being trapped in the low-cost product range, manufacturers can only choose to develop high-end TWS headphones. The price distribution data of the 2021 TWS new machine of Rising Sun Big Data shows that the proportion of TWS headphones with a price of less than 500 yuan is 57%, and the proportion of TWS new machines with a price of more than 500 yuan is 43%, which means that many manufacturers are working high-end TWS products and are keen to launch higher-priced products. It is foreseeable that in 2022, more domestic mobile phone manufacturers will release flagship TWS headphones to increase the share of high-priced products in the total product.
Write at the end
TWS headsets evolved with the development of smartphones. In general, the current TWS headset industry is still in a period of development and rise, but the intensification of competition makes manufacturers develop in two different directions, third-party small and medium-sized manufacturers in order to survive, choose to bet on the low-end TWS headset market, indirectly promote the decentralization of wireless charging and noise reduction and other technologies, mainstream domestic mobile phone manufacturers are increasing the technical content of flagship products, essentially "technology inclusive".
What will happen to the TWS headset industry in 2022? It may be similar to the development of the smartphone industry after 2016, mainstream manufacturers continue to attack the city, the living space of small and medium-sized manufacturers is further compressed, and white-label or copycat manufacturers gradually withdraw from the mainstream market.