Turn back the time to 2016, when the main work of mobile phone manufacturers was to benchmark Apple and think about how to make the screen bigger. Headset manufacturers have spent their thoughts on how to avoid mobile phone manufacturers canceling the 3.5mm headphone jack and reluctantly developing Bluetooth headsets. However, the story will take a turn here, at Apple's new product conference in September of that year, Apple, a manufacturer of "computers and mobile phones" in the eyes of the public, released high-end TWS Bluetooth headsets that surpassed many headphone brands - AirPods, which once again became a market hit. This also opens the door to a new world for mobile phone manufacturers, it turns out that "we" can not only make mobile phones. For headphone manufacturers, AirPods let them completely abandon the illusion of "3.5mm headphone jack", and Bluetooth headphones have become their real journey.
At a time when "involution" has become a mantra, for enterprises and brands to "break through the boundaries of cognition" and grasp the emotional value of users, it has become a new direction for them to seek growth. However, these words are simply said and done is another matter, putting aside the history, experience and achievements, and entering the new track lightly, this step is not so easy for any enterprise. However, the headphone brand did it...
On April 11, professional sports headphone brand Shokz Shokz held a new product launch conference in Beijing and released the flagship OpenFit in-ear Bluetooth headset of the comfort zone series. It is reported that Shokz's new headphones OpenFit are split design, the form belongs to the TWS/OWS category, and the two sides of the headset are independently split. Due to the use of traditional dynamic structure, its sound principle is the same as that of traditional headphones, but through the in-ear design and its own directional sound field technology, this new product takes "comfort" as the main core selling point, but the common long battery life, call noise reduction, water resistance and sweat resistance of such headphones are also available.
If you compare horizontally with other brand headphone products, this headset is more in the "not in-ear" feature. However, compared vertically with other Shokz headphone products, OpenFit comfort zone headphones are of extraordinary significance to the Shokz brand.
For friends who like to listen to music and listen to audio in sports, when buying headphones, you should have seen the products of the brand "Shokz sports headphones". Shokz headphones are mainly sports headphones with bone conduction technology as the core selling point, and its products use bone conduction technology to directly transmit vibration through the skull to the brain with the help of a vibration generator close to the pinna, without the need for air as a transmission medium. Bone conduction headphones with their "in-ear" characteristics, solve many of the drawbacks of in-ear headphones. Especially under the further development and adjustment of bone conduction technology by the Shokz technical team, the Shokz Bone Conduction Headphones have better sound quality and wearing comfort, even if sweat will not affect the sound quality and comfort of the headphones, so that sports enthusiasts are more fond of it.
Today, with the research and development, design, production and marketing of electroacoustic technologies such as bone conduction, Shokz has won the single champion enterprise of manufacturing enterprises and national "little giant" enterprises awarded by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Its global layout of more than 3,800 intellectual property rights has formed a solid patent moat, and it can be said that in the field of bone conduction headphones, Shokz headphones have reached the "ceiling" level. It is understood that Shokzko's global GMV in 2022 has exceeded 2.69 billion yuan, achieving a sales market share of 71.4% in the bone conduction headphone market. From 2020 to 2022, Shokz Shokz ranked first in the bone conduction headphone market for three consecutive years.
In the eyes of ordinary people, a company's patents, historical growth achievements and brand influence are all treasures of the enterprise. However, in the face of technological evolution and market changes, it is unknown whether these "treasures" will become a burden for enterprises to stagnate and cause enterprises to fall into the "innovator's dilemma".
Unexpectedly, Shokz did not release bone conduction headphones this time
"One morning I threw away all my yesterday, and my steps have been light ever since." The artistic conception in Tagore's poem is applicable to those enterprises that are not attached to past achievements, have the courage to pioneer and innovate, and travel lightly to face changes in the market, and Shokz belongs to such enterprises.
In the eyes of the industry and the market, the new product launch is only one year away from Shokz's explosive product OpenRun Pro sports headphones using bone conduction technology, and most industry experts and headphone experts believe that Shokz headphones will be upgraded on the basis of the original and release a new generation of bone conduction headphones before the new product conference. However, this time, the flagship OpenFit in-ear Bluetooth headset (hereinafter referred to as: OpenFit) of the comfort zone series surprised everyone...
As a new member of the Shokz headphone family, OpenFit retains the characteristics of "not in the ear", but does not continue to develop along the existing bone conduction technology path of Shokz headphones, but opens up a new development direction by relying on Shokz's new acoustic patent - DirectPitch™ directional sound field technology.
It is understood that the patented technology of DirectPitch™ directional sound field allows sound sources to be placed according to a certain topology, and control the distribution of sound pressure in space by regulating the amplitude difference and phase difference between different sound sources to achieve specific spatial directivity. This allows OpenFit to maintain the characteristics of not needing to be worn in the ear, which can not only transmit sound accurately and efficiently, listen more privately, but also allow users to perceive outdoor ambient sounds in real time and protect the safety of movement.
The release of OpenFit comfort zone has allowed the industry and the market to see the difference between Shokz headphones, but the market also has different sounds, Shokz launched non-bone conduction type products, is it just "showmanship"? Or is there something else?
It belongs to the "broken circle" of Shokz headphones
In fact, the release of OpenFit comfort zone is not only Shokz's internal mining of its own technology and brand capabilities, but also Shokz's re-judgment of the development trend of the headphone market.
Just as Apple is not just a mobile phone manufacturer, the product concept of Shokz headphones is "to create headphone products that are open to listening and not in the ear". Bone conduction sports headphones are just one direction of Shokz in-ear headphone products. In addition to bone conduction technology, Shokz will also lay out other acoustic technologies, and these technologies have also led to the creation of OpenFit's comfort zone.
Although bone conduction technology can achieve an in-ear wearing style, the sound quality impact brought by bone conduction technology essentially limits the scope of bone conduction headphones to be accepted by the market, so that for a long time, bone conduction headphones have only been sought after in the far moving circle.
According to the latest report released by global professional consulting agency Sullivan in April 2023, Shokz has achieved global sales leading market results in sports headphones. Although Shokz uses its own technical capabilities to constantly bridge the shortcomings of bone conduction technology itself in terms of sound quality, this also affects the possibility of its products breaking through the sports circle to a larger market. And with the rising enthusiasm for sports in recent years, companies with headphone manufacturing capabilities, including JBL, Sony, QCY and several well-known consumer electronics manufacturers in mainland China, have begun to make efforts to sports headphones. Sports headphones, this once blue ocean market, is changing.
"Sun Tzu's Art of War" has clouds that "avoid its edge, strike its laziness, each according to its own desires, and get what they want." "For Shokz headphones, continuing to grow in mature sports areas will not lead to greater growth for its business. In order to better develop, "breaking the circle" has become a chess game that Shokz must take, and the release of OpenFit comfort circle is a move to break this game.
At the OpenFit conference, the user models appearing in the poster also changed from athletes to the most common students and office workers on the street, and in the product video, it was urban beauty who wore headphones through the glass curtain wall. A series of performances show that the Shokz headphones are "breaking the circle", in official terms, it is "expanding to the full scene".
In terms of products, OpenFit easily breaks through the bottleneck of sound quality. OpenFit comfort zone is equipped with Shokz OpenBass™ low-frequency enhancement algorithm, equipped with highly sensitive driver unit and customized composite diaphragm to ensure high sound quality; At the same time, it integrates dual microphones tuned to the prime position, combined with Ai intelligent call noise reduction algorithm, to ensure the human voice, effectively eliminate environmental noise and call echo, so that the quality of voice calls is guaranteed.
Driven by the "double helix innovation" structure including technological innovation and user thinking, Shokz has achieved today's leading position in the global category of in-ear headphones. According to the professional consulting agency Sullivan, the global retail sales of in-ear headphone products doubled from 2018 to 2022. With consumers' attention to ear health and the rapid iteration of in-ear headphone products, the market size of in-ear headphones will further increase.
Source: Global Network