In the past 2023, smart watches and smart bracelet-related industries have continued to develop and progress, and new products with new highlights have been emerging, continuously injecting new vitality into the industry. Looking back at the whole year, we have seen new products that are iterative breakthroughs in traditional performance, and we have also seen products that are trying to make breakthrough innovations in the already highly mature smart watch/bracelet market.
Market shares
According to public research data, including smart watches, light smart watches, and smart bracelets, global shipments of smart watches/smart bracelets in 2023 will be 186 million units, an increase of 2% from the full year of 2022. In an environment where the overall growth of the consumer electronics category is sluggish, smart watches/smart bracelets still recorded positive growth in shipments, indicating that the market is still full of vitality.
Public market research also points out that in 2024, the smart watch/smart bracelet market will usher in further recovery. Canalys predicts that smart watches/smart bracelets will grow by 10% in 2024, of which full smart watches will grow by 17% and light smart watches will also grow by 10%. Market expectations are good.
Market development outlook
According to research firm Canalys, smart watches/smart bracelets will grow by 10% in 2024, of which full smart watches will grow by 17% and light smart watches will also grow by 10%. Market expectations are good.
User functional requirements have increased, and the time for machine replacement has arrived
Functional iteration stimulates users’ desire to change phones
The rise of emerging markets
Affected by the epidemic, a large number of users purchased smart watches and smart bracelet devices from 2020 to 2021 due to the need to monitor health. This group of users will reach the replacement time point around 2024, providing basic momentum for market growth.
The functional iteration of smart watches and smart bracelets has further stimulated users’ desire to change their phones. After 2020, smart wear has made great progress in health and sports monitoring, battery life, and communication functions. And after the AI boom, new products have made great progress in experience. For existing users who have already used smart wear, as well as those who have not tried it, Smart wearables are attractive to new users.
In addition, the gradual rise of emerging markets such as South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Central and Eastern Europe has also brought new impetus to the growth of the smart watch and bracelet market. Canalys said that smartwatch shipments in the Middle East and Central and Eastern Europe are expected to grow by 27% and 22% respectively by 2024, showing the huge driving role of emerging markets.
Major technology trends and prospects
The “2023 Smart Watch Industry Insights” report jointly released by Zhiyan Research Institute and UNISOC pointed out that industry personnel and consumers believe that the technical trends of smart watches will show diversified development, but intelligence and independent communication are the most popular in the consumer market hot spots of concern.
Increased intelligence
The intelligence of smart watches and smart bracelets refers to more natural and intelligent voice interaction, more accurate analysis and suggestions for users’ healthy life, and the further application of AIGC technology tools such as GPT, etc.
Since 2023, we have seen watchGPT and other watch apps that introduce AI into watches on watchOS, and even watches such as Wearfit that directly introduce AI voice into system-level operations. I believe that in 2024, the trend of AI intelligence will be further highlighted. .
Independent communications become more popular
The independent communication function allows smart watches and smart bracelets to communicate independently from mobile phones. The SIM independent communication function is not new in smart watches, but in 2023, the independent communication function will be further popularized in new smart watches and bracelets, and has even become a “standard” feature for smart watches worth more than 1,000 yuan.
The “2023 Smart Watch Industry Insights” report points out that more than 70% of the industry and consumers believe that independent communication is the future technology trend of smart watches. It is expected that in 2024, independent communication will be further popularized in products in a wider price range.
Healthy sports functions are further enhanced
Health and exercise monitoring functions are the main focus of today’s smart watches and bracelets. In 2023, smart watches and bracelets will continue to be updated and enhanced in this regard.
The 2023 flagship, new smart watch products have basically achieved full coverage of basic indicators of heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, and heart rate variability, and related advanced indicators such as sleep and stress have also become “standard.”
Extreme sports and outdoor scenes attract attention
In 2023, smart watches and smart bracelets will begin to move towards extreme sports and outdoor scenes. Huawei released a new product, HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate, at its spring conference, focusing on outdoor sports scenes; at Apple’s autumn conference, the sports watch also received a second-generation update, Apple Watch Ultra 2.
These smart watches that explore extreme sports and outdoor fields all have “sturdiness” as their basic feature and can withstand wind, sand, and depth. However, they also have different understandings of outdoor sports. Apple Watch Ultra 2 continues the series’ features such as loud sirens and fall collision detection, while HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate uses Huawei’s communication technology to introduce satellite communication functions to cope with scenarios where there is no signal in the suburbs.
Representative products
Smart Watch
HUAWEI WATCH ULTIMATE
Keywords: extreme sports, outdoor, satellite communication
Huawei released the new product HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate at the 2023 spring flagship conference, marking another smart wearable head brand’s exploration of smart watches into outdoor sports scenes.
In addition to the rich functions and excellent quality consistent with Huawei’s high-end watch series, HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate also adds unprecedented professional features such as advanced health functions, 100-meter waterproof, and Beidou satellite messaging.
Apple Watch Series 9
Keywords: two-finger interaction, 2000 nits brightness
At Apple’s autumn new product launch in September 2023, the Apple Watch series ushered in the ninth generation product Apple Watch Series 9, which represents the iterative direction of mainstream smart watches.
The new Apple Watch Series 9 comes with the major update of watchOS 10. As a standard watch, the functional updates are mainly in traditional indicators such as brightness and health monitoring capabilities. However, the newly added “two-finger pinch” control method attempts to innovate smart watches from an interactive level and makes breakthrough innovations.
Smart bracelet
Xiaomi Mi Band 8 Pro
Keywords: 1.74-inch large screen, GNSS five-star positioning
On August 14, Xiaomi Mi Band 8 Pro was officially unveiled at Xiaomi Lei Jun’s annual speech event. Xiaomi Mi Band 8 Pro takes “big, different” as its slogan, adopts a new large-screen design, more accurate GNSS five-star positioning capabilities, and a new “watch-level” processor.
As the flagship product among smart bracelets, Xiaomi Mi Band 8 Pro embodies the trend of “bracelet-based watchmaking” to a certain extent, further blurring the boundaries between smart bracelets and smart watches.
Huawei call bracelet B7
Keywords: bracelet/earphone dual form
Huawei Talk Band B7 was released at Huawei’s spring conference in 2023. It is the second update of Huawei Band B series after three years. The B7 bracelet still continues the “call” feature of the previous generation and has the dual form of a bracelet and earphones.
Summarize
In an environment where the overall growth of the consumer electronics category is sluggish, the smart watch and smart bracelet market will still record positive growth in 2023, showing the full vitality of this category.
Looking back at the whole year, functional iteration is still the annual theme of the entire category of smart watches and smart bracelets. AI intelligence, independent communication, and extreme outdoor sports are important keywords.
Driven by positive factors such as the arrival of the replacement cycle, the increasing desire of users to upgrade, and the rise of emerging markets, 2024 will be the year of further recovery for smart watches and smart bracelets.
What surprises are waiting for us in the smart watch and smart bracelet market in 2024?
