In 2020, TWS Headphones Will Be Hot: Apple Will Enter Many Categories, And Android Will Seize The Head Share

Apple, the number one player in the TWS field, has begun to enter the high-end Bluetooth headset market. Where have other players gone?

Recently, Apple has quietly updated a new product on its official website and announced that it has begun to enter the Bluetooth headset market. From the original airpods series with a price no more than 2000 yuan to the airpods max with a direct price of more than 4000 yuan, it means that Apple has entered another new field.

In the 5g era, under the ecological construction system of the integration of all things, earphone has become the market that all mobile phone manufacturers will inevitably enter. In addition, the non hole of mobile phone makes the earphone hole on the mobile phone end be cancelled directly, which promotes the rise of TWS headset sales this year.

Interestingly, just like the development of smart phones, Apple has taught the public what a real smart phone is in the 3G era, and the category of TWS headphones has been opened by Apple since 2016. In this way, although Apple's share in the TWS headset market is still ahead of the rest, it is only after the leap of Android system this year that Apple will lose 40% of its share.

This shows the high growth of the whole industry. According to the statistics of institutions, TWS earphones have been popularized in the market at the rate of doubling every year in the past few years, and the growth rates of shipment volume from 2017 to 2019 are 118%, 130% and 179% respectively. Counterpoint research predicts that the global sales of TWS wireless headphones will reach 230 million by 2020.

Cai Zhuo Yun, consulting and Research Manager of trendforce group, told 21st century economic reporter that, just like Apple's decision, mobile phone brands in the future will not be limited to TWS Bluetooth headset products, but will be extended to different forms of Bluetooth headsets.

However, he also pointed out that in 2021, the TWS Bluetooth headset market will continue to maintain a rapid growth trend. However, with the introduction of other headset products by various brands, consumers will have more choices, and the growth momentum of TWS Bluetooth headset market will be diluted, and the growth rate will be slowed down.

Early pattern similar to smart machine

Apple, which currently dominates the market for TWS headphones, is the pioneer of this category, just as the iPhone 4 opened the market to the real imagination of smart phones many years ago.

This has led to Apple's long-standing position in the top position of TWS headphones. This year, driven by Android mobile phone manufacturers, it has further enlarged the demand of people who pay attention to the price market.

In the channel market, even in the low line sinking market, the demand for headphones is booming under the market education. Recently, the 21st century economic reporter visited the offline channels of mobile phone manufacturers and found that the demand of TWS earphone market is more vigorous than that of smart Bracelet in wearable category products, because the functions are more "user-friendly" and the types are increasingly rich.

What's more, the salesmen of mobile phone stores will adopt flexible ways to promote the demand for earphone products through various preferential activities and direct experience.

This is consistent with the analysis trend of research institutions. According to canalys research, TWS earphones will be more resistant to the new crown pneumonia outbreak this year than smart phones. It is expected that the shipment of this category will increase by 32% in 2020. In addition to greater China and North America, the growth of smart parts in Asia Pacific and Europe is expected to be strong.

Cynthia, research analyst at canalys, pointed out that the Asia Pacific region is expected to surpass North America in 2024 and become the second largest region in the world in wearable devices and TWS headphones market. Chinese manufacturers will play an important role in this regard.

Indeed, Apple launched its first TWS headset product airpods as early as 2016, but it was only this year, with the insight of the future 5g entrance, and with the real breakthrough in technology, that Android manufacturers brought TWS earphones with a price of less than 100 yuan into the public view.

One of the barriers is that Apple's barriers to self-developed closed technology have not been broken by the industry for a long time, but recently, manufacturers have made great progress here.

Zeng Guanwei, a consulting analyst with Jibang, told the 21st century economic report that Apple's W1 and H1 chips, which are developed by apple, adopt snoop monitoring mode technology for audio transmission, which are exclusive patent technology and are only provided for their own products. Specifically, W1 has the characteristics of fast pairing, stable connection and low power consumption, which can wake up the voice assistant through touch; H1 has the function of voice control wake-up voice assistant.

At present, the chip manufacturers of Android TWS camp include hengxuan, Qualcomm, Huawei, etc., each of which has different functions. However, they are mainly developing towards the one-to-two or even one to many audio transmission mode, so as to reduce the delay and time difference of the sound received by both ears.

"Generally speaking, Apple's TWS headset has good performance, but it can't be said to be much better than Android, because chips from other manufacturers have similar functions. Apple's main advantage is that it enjoys the brand effect of the whole machine, and it can quickly pair with iPhone and connect stably. " He continued.

Under the breakthrough of Android system, the market share has changed significantly. According to the statistics of a number of third-party organizations, as of the second quarter of this year, apple still accounted for more than 40% of the TWS category in both the global market and the Chinese market.

However, according to canalys statistics, in the first quarter of 2020, compared with the same period of the previous year, apple and Samsung, which ranked first and second in the global market distribution of TWS earphones, both declined. On the contrary, Hongmi, Huawei and even "other" categories showed an increase in share.

All things connected with each other

There is no doubt that the products distributed in many price segments enable more and more audiences to accept this seemingly updated and light category. Among them, the maturity of technology and the perfection of supply chain system have played an important role.

Cai Zhuo Yun analyzed to the 21st century economic reporter that a large number of low-cost products and mobile phone brand manufacturers have brought about the rise of the TWS Bluetooth headset market.

"Mobile phone brand manufacturers are looking for more products with growth momentum. As an extension of smart phones, TWS Bluetooth headset has considerable price and profit, which naturally becomes the key target of brand manufacturers. This is also the reason why the market of TWS Bluetooth headset will grow rapidly in recent years." He pointed out that the high growth rate of TWS earphones this year also comes from the contribution made by brand manufacturers to actively launch new products, and even manufacturers such as Microsoft and Google have begun to enter the market.

In contrast, traditional earphone strong brands Sony, JBL, rambler and so on seem to encounter a positive defense battle. However, pan Xuefei, IDC's China Research Manager, told reporters that the entry of mobile phone manufacturers has brought strong impetus to market growth, and has strong competitive advantages in terms of brand, equipment coordination and channel. However, traditional headphone brands still play an important role in the richness of product line, the accumulation of audio technology and the influence of brands in audio field, and there are still audience and followers. In the long run, there will be competition between the two sides.

As for the future distribution trend of the price segment, according to her analysis, "mobile phone manufacturers have brought the cost of TWS earphone to a very low level, mainly because the cost of TWS headset solution in the original headset supply chain system has dropped rapidly in the past year or two. In the future, the TWS earphone market will still conform to the trend of consumption classification. While there will be a large number of high price segments of more than 1000 yuan and low price segments of less than 200 yuan, the middle end market will gradually expand. "

Cai Zhuo Yun also believes that many well-known brand manufacturers are still focusing on high-priced products, including Huawei, Samsung and other brands, whose basic prices are between 100-200 US dollars. "Even with the implementation of noise reduction and the development of voice applications, the hardware specifications will continue to improve, and it is estimated that the price will increase to more than $200." He pointed out that although brands will still launch the entry-level TWS Bluetooth headset, it is basically to fill the market of $100-200.

However, the increasingly low-cost TWS earphones, on the one hand, are educating users about the sinking market. More importantly, it will form a new IOT ecological development pattern among different manufacturers in the 5g era.