On December 19, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily learned that due to a medical patent dispute, Apple Watch Ultra2 and Apple Watch Series9 can no longer be ordered on Apple's website from 3 p.m. EST on December 21. After December 24, in-store inventory for both products will no longer be available in Apple retail stores. In recent years, not only Apple Watch, but also smart watches have paid more and more attention to health functions, striving to be the user's "personal doctor", but in the case of convergence of health functions, cost performance is also an important factor affecting consumer choice, in the view of industry experts, there is still room for improvement in the health function of smart watches, which needs to be based on hardware innovation.
Apple is not the "first choice"
It is understood that the discontinuation of the two Apple Watches is the result of a ruling by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) that is part of a long-running patent dispute between Apple and medical technology company Masimo over Apple Watch blood oxygen sensor technology. The International Trade Commission (ITC) announced in October that it found that the Apple Watch infringed Masimo's patents, upholding the judge's decision in January.
Apple Watch is a sector that Apple is difficult to give up, according to market research agency Watch Faces data, Apple's Apple Watch sales in 2022 will reach 53.9 million pieces, breaking through the 50 million mark, and health functions are a vital part, at present, Apple Watch supports ECG, blood oxygen, heart rate, menstrual tracking, medication reminders, sleep monitoring and other functions, in an interview, a user told a reporter from Beijing Business Daily that it was this point to buy.
Mr. Tang, a user, told a reporter from Beijing Business Daily that he had suffered from myocarditis, and the heart of the elderly at home had also had problems, so he paid special attention to blood oxygen monitoring. However, Mr. Tang also said that the blood oxygen monitoring of the Apple Watch is not very accurate, and the tightness of the wearing and the posture of the arm will affect the results, but it is generally reliable and can be used to save the emergency when the body is not feeling well.
However, it is not difficult to observe the market and find that the health functions that can be achieved by the above AppleWatch can also be achieved by domestic brands. User Mr. Zhang told the Beijing Business Daily reporter that he also wanted to buy a smart watch because of the health function, and he had been using a smart bracelet before, and found that smart watches including Huawei and OPPO could cover heart rate, blood oxygen monitoring, heart health research and other functions, and finally bought a Huawei watch4Pro, Mr. Zhang said, the reason why he didn't choose Apple, is because he feels that Huawei's battery life is better.
Consumer attitudes are also reflected in the data, although Apple is unique in the mobile phone market, but it has been overtaken by Huawei on smart watches, forming a pattern of Apple and Huawei. Counterpoint statistics show that in the second quarter of this year, Huawei's smart watches increased by 58% year-on-year, and Apple Watch shipments fell by 15%, although Apple Watch Series8 is still the best-selling smartwatch in China in the second quarter, but compared with Series7 in the second quarter of 2022, shipments fell by 25%.
Health or value for money
In the opinion of experts, this situation is not unexpected. Industry observer Major General Ding to the Beijing Business Daily reporter analysis said, smart watches since the beginning of the birth, has been regarded as a cost-effective product, compared with traditional mechanical watches, smart watches have different cultural backgrounds, target groups are very different, it is difficult to form a high premium, compared to mobile phones such a highly integrated product, the importance of smart watches is difficult to demonstrate, and even regarded as an accessory to mobile phones, so it can only expand the customer base by increasing cost performance, Apple's strong brand power, it is difficult to use on smart watches.
What's more, compared with Apple, domestic brand smart watches have a more complete product line. Take Huawei as an example,Its high-end products are HuaweiWatch4series,Among them, HuaweiWatch 4ProSold at 3199 yuan,The cheaper ones areWatch CT 3Pro,1888 yuan on sale,There is also Watch FIT2 on parity products,649Yuan for sale,It also supports intelligent heart rate monitoring and Bluetooth calling,And Apple's main parity marketWatch SE is also sold at 1999 yuan,Watch Series9It is sold at 2999 yuan。
Apple's patent dispute has unveiled a corner of its cooperation with medical institutions, but Apple is not the only one who has joined hands with medical institutions, Huawei's relevant person in charge told Beijing Business Daily in an interview: Huawei's smart wearable products provide 7×24 hours of all-weather health monitoring management, and the ECG analysis prompt software has also obtained Class II medical device registration and EU CEMDR medical device certificate. At the same time, Huawei cooperates with professional medical institutions in the industry to provide health monitoring and risk screening services in the fields of respiratory, heart, and blood pressure.
Xiaomi told a reporter from Beijing Business Daily that the Xiaomi blood pressure watch was approved as the "Medical Device Registration Certificate of the People's Republic of China" and the "Type Approval Certificate of Measuring Instruments", and carried out experimental tests with the authoritative medical institutions of the Third Hospital of Beijing Medical University and Fuwai Hospital.
Major General Ding believes that although the health function of smart watches is frequently used, the effect is not intuitive, so in the current market, the health functions of various brands are roughly the same, and finally return to the old road of competing for cost performance.
Where is the room for improvement?
Although the health features are similar, deep dwelling in this field may be the only option for smartwatches to differentiate. Liang Zhenpeng, a senior industrial economic observer, told the Beijing Business Daily reporter that the current degree of integration of electronic products is getting higher and higher, and the functions that can be realized at the software level are roughly the same. Between smart watches, it has become the difference in screen size, and now the mobile phone has become the hub of personal life, and the tablet pays attention to office needs, compared with the two, the biggest advantage of smart watches is that they are constantly worn close to the body, and they can perceive the user's physical condition at any time, so smart watches can only gain a foothold in a group of hardware if they continue to increase their health functions.
As for how to open up the imagination space in the future, experts believe that hardware improvement is still the only way, after all, the accuracy of health detection data is directly related to the sensor, for example, heart rate monitoring has gradually evolved from the original optical sensor to a bioelectrical impedance sensor.
Specifically, the optical heart rate sensor is to measure the fluctuation of light absorption by irradiating the skin and blood vessels that are close to the sensor with LED green light, so as to judge the heart rate status and assist in motion detection, which can realize the most basic monitoring function. The bioelectrical impedance sensor can monitor blood flow through the impedance of the biological body itself, and convert it into specific heart rate, respiration rate and galvanic skin response index. Because it integrates diverse data, the detection accuracy is enhanced and more referential.
For example, the OPPO Watch 4 Pro has added a wrist temperature sensor, and upgraded the heart rate sensor to 8 channels and the blood oxygen sensor to 16 channels. Because of this improvement, the new product has added the function of 60-second physical examination, which can check the four major risks of vascular elasticity risk, heart health risk, sign temperature change, sleep snoring risk, and evaluate heart rate, vascular age, pressure, blood oxygen, ECG, sleep, wrist temperature and other physical indicators.
Experts believe that although the current smart watch is difficult to have a major innovation in the external form, but with the sensors, algorithms and these seemingly inconspicuous improvements, it can also allow various brands to distinguish between high and low health functions, as durable goods, smart watches will accompany users for a long time, which health function is more golden, more poking pain points, will gradually show in the competition.
Beijing Business Daily reporter Tao Feng Wang Zhuli
![When my colleague was working overtime to write, the smartwatch said he was dreaming![fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)