因有损听力,TWS一直广遭诟病,骨传导耳机亦因健康及音质问题未能普及。如此需求背景下,开放式耳机粉墨登场。
据潮电智库了解,以索尼、小米、Cleer、大十科技、韶音等五大厂牌都已进入开放式耳机领域,共发布相关产品10款。
上述某家耳机厂商高管王华(化名)透露说,“2022年公司开放式耳机的业绩同比增加了两三倍。从市场前景来看,未来甚至有望替代TWS。”
开放式耳机真正的崛起,是在最近一两年。
大十科技在2021年行业峰会首次全球性公开提出“OWS(Open Wearable Stereo)”的概念;而早在2019年就对开放式耳机有所试探的Cleer(深圳市冠旭电子股份有限公司旗下品牌),在2022年1月发布了首款开放式耳机ARC音弧;索尼则在最近两年连续发布了两款开放式耳机产品。
据悉,华为、小米、OPPO、荣耀等厂商正在跟进,并且将在今年推出自己的开放式耳机。
Cleer
Cleer目前官网在售开放式耳机共四款,分别是ARC“音弧”、ARC II“音弧”运动版、ARC II“音弧”音乐版、ARC II“音弧”游戏版。
Cleer主要产品有开放式耳机、入耳式耳机、头戴式耳机、音响等。目前Cleer已经入驻英国“Harrods哈洛德”与“selfridges塞尔福里奇”两大国际奢侈品百货专柜。
Cleer凭借深圳市冠旭电子股份有限公司在声学领域多年的积累,从而在生产以及研发上具备得天独厚的优势,并且在发声单元、音频调教、降噪技术、无线连接、人体工学等方面具备自己的专利特色。
据报道,Cleer在2022年1月推出的首款开放式耳机ARC音弧,于同年抖音618、818、双11等促销活动中,均稳居影音类商品榜、品牌榜、店铺榜销售榜首。
时隔一年,Cleer推出ARC II音弧。
Cleer有关负责人表示,“目前开放式耳机格局逐渐打开,公司对未来市场前景十分看好,也会继续加码该项业务。”
大十科技
大十科技目前官网在售耳机有两款,分别为OWS 1和OWS 2。
“OWS”,是一款全开放穿戴式耳机产品。OWS耳机在自然状态下除重力外0外在压力,有用户生动地反馈“把耳机忘在耳朵上了。”
大十科技Jay-Yang 认为,基于人们对高品质的需求,入耳式耳机不是最优解,开放式是未来。OWS耳机帮助用户听得更真切、更沉浸、拥有更和谐的人机交互。好的产品是科技与艺术的融合,不仅追求功能,也追求情感体验。
目前,由8位来自BOSE成员所组成的大十科技继承了重研发、求创新的传统,公司已经在30+国家地区销售,获得亚马逊2022年度创新品牌奖、2022德国红点产品设计大奖,以及日本众筹平台Makuake2022年度最佳项目银奖。
大十科技凭借其亮眼的产品强势打入开放式耳机战局,但声学领域的产品开发亦需要庞大的研发团队与生产团队支持,如何走得更深更远,对于还未形成规模化的大十科技来说,是一个值得思考的问题。
索尼
索尼目前官网在售开放式耳机有两款,分别为linkBuds真无线耳机和Float Run悬浮豆非入耳开放式运动耳机。
索尼在2018年的时候,推出过一款全开放式耳机 Xperia Ear Duo,但Xperia Ear Duo似乎只属于少数人的狂欢,索尼迟迟未推出它的续作产品。
2022年5月,索尼发布了开放式真无线耳机linkBuds;今年2月,索尼正式推出Float Run悬浮豆非入耳开放式运动耳机。
如此短的新品发布周期,也意味着索尼在开放式耳机领域的强势加码。在王华看来,索尼具有强大国际品牌优势,会对市场普及和行业发展起到积极的作用。
从市场反馈来看,Float Run这款产品受到消费者的广泛认可。潮电智库从网络上的测评文章以及评论区观察到,Float Run在同等价位,更具备音质以及舒适度等优势。
韶音
韶音,专业运动耳机品类的佼佼者,陆续推出十余款产品,其中包含一款开放式耳机OpenFit。
4月11日,韶音发布舒适圈系列旗舰款OpenFit不入耳蓝牙耳机。韶音中国区CEO杨云公开表示,OpenFit舒适圈的发布将打造不入耳耳机体验的新标杆。
潮电智库认为,韶音推出“不入耳”这一概念名称,欲意是打造自己的品牌概念,实则同属于开放式耳机范畴。
同时,OpenFit的发布也意味着一直走骨传导路线的韶音正式布局开放式耳机业务。
良好的业绩和庞大的专利护城河都是韶音入局开放式耳机的强大助力。
2022年,韶音的营收超过了60亿,近7年实现了超过80倍的营收增长。
截至2022年9月,韶音已经在全球进行了3300余项知识自主产权布局,并于2021年成为国家级专精特新重点小巨人企业,夺得了由国家知识产权局评审的全行业最高荣誉——第二十二届中国专利金奖。
这条专利护城河不仅帮助没有固定资产的韶音用知识产权质押从银行获得贷款,解决曾经的资金困局,也有效防止了后来者的入局。
今年年初,媒体就报道了韶音诉小米专利侵权案开庭审理。有数据统计,仅在2021年,韶音就对20多家侵权厂商提起了200多起专利诉讼,涉及20多项专利。
小米
目前小米商城在售耳机款数共27款,其中包括一款骨传导耳机GCDEJ01LS。
去年年底发布的小米首款骨传导耳机,或代表着小米已踏入开放式耳机的大门,步伐领先于老对手华为、OPPO等。
据悉,小米骨传导耳机,其背后的核心技术来自米链企业猎声,猎声在今年年初立项研发骨传导耳机,推出了新的独立品牌Haylou。
不过,开放式耳机同行似乎并不看好小米开放式耳机的前景。
王华认为,小米作为消费电子和生态大厂,主要优势在于品牌溢价与规模化营销,对于供应链资源和产品成本有较好的掌控能力,但开放式耳机属于全新的技术路线,更需要专业的厂商进行开发创新。“简单来说,术业有专攻。”
Five well-know brands start to do OWS earphones,which we can see the intense market competition
TWS has been widely criticized for its damage to hearing, and bone conduction earphones have not been popularized due to health and sound quality problems. Against this backdro of demand, OWS headphones have made their debut.
According to the Electrend , five major brands including Sony, Xiaomi, Cleer, Oladance, and Shokz have all entered the OWS headphones markets, releasing a total of 10 related products.
Wang Hua, a senior executive of a certain headphone manufacturer mentioned above (pseudonym), revealed that "the company's performance of open headphones in 2022 has increased by two to three times year-on-year. From the market outlook, it is even possible to replac TWS in the future.
The true rise of open headphones has been in the past year or two.
The concept of "OWS (Open Wearable Stereo)" was first publicly proposed globally by Oladance at the 2021 Industry Summit; Cleer (a brand under Shenzhen Guanxu Electronics Co., Ltd.), which had already explored open headphones in 2019, released its first open headphones ARC sound arc in January 2022; Sony has released two consecutive open-end earphone products in the past two years.
It is reported that manufacturers such as Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, and Honor are following suit and will launch their own open headphones this year.
Cleer
Cleer currently sells a total of four open headphones on its official website, namely ARC "Audio Arcs", ARC II "Audio Arcs" Sports Edition, ARC II "Audio Arcs" Music Edition, and ARC II "Audio Arcs" Game Edition.
Cleer's main products include open headphones, in ear headphones, headphones, audio systems, and more. Currently, Cleer has settled in two major international luxury department stores in the UK, Harrods Harold and selfridges.
Cleer, with years of accumulation in the field of acoustics by Shenzhen Guanxu Electronics Co., Ltd., has unique advantages in production and research and development, and has its own patent features in sound production units, audio tuning, noise reduction technology, wireless connection, ergonomics, and other aspects.
It is reported that Cleer launched the first open earphone ARC sound arc in January 2022, and in the same year, Tiktok 618, 818, Double 11 and other promotional activities, it ranked first in the sales of audio-visual products, brands and stores.
After a year, Cleer launched the ARC II sound arc.
The person in charge of Cleer stated, "Currently, the open headphone market is gradually opening up, and the company is very optimistic about the future market prospects and will continue to increase its investment in this business.
Oladance
There are currently two earphones available on the official website of Oladance, namely OWS 1 and OWS 2.
OWS is a fully open wearable earphone product. OWS earphones have zero external pressure except for gravity in their natural state, and some users vividly feedback that they have forgotten the earphones on their ears.
Jay Yang from Oladance company, believes that based on people's demand for high-quality earphones, in ear headphones are not the optimal solution, and open headphones are the future. OWS headphones help users listen more authentically, immersively, and have a more harmonious human-computer interaction. A good product is a fusion of technology and art, pursuing not only functionality but also emotional experience.
At present, the Oladance, composed of 8 BOSE members, has inherited the tradition of emphasizing research and innovation. The company has sold in more than 30 countries and regions, and has won the Amazon 2022 Innovation Brand Award, the German Red Dot Product Design Award, and the Japanese crowdfunding platform Makuake 2022 Best Project Silver Award.
Oladance has entered the open headphone market with its eye-catching products, but product development in the acoustic field also requires the support of a large R&D team and production team. How to go deeper and further is a question worth considering for Oladance, which has not yet formed a scale.
Sony
Sony currently has two open headphones available on its official website, namely linkBuds true wireless headphones and Float Run floating bean non in ear open sports headphones.
Sony launched a fully open headphones Xperia Ear Duo in 2018, but the Xperia Ear Duo seems to belong to a minority frenzy, and Sony has not yet launched its sequel product.
In May 2022, Sony released the Open True Wireless Earphones linkBuds; In February of this year, Sony officially launched the Float Run floating bean non in ear open sports headphones.
Such a short new product release cycle also means that Sony has a strong presence in the field of open headphones. In Wang Hua's view, Sony has a strong international brand advantage and will play a positive role in market popularization and industry development.
From market feedback, the Float Run product has been widely recognized by consumers. Electrend has observed from online evaluation articles and comment sections that Float Run has advantages such as sound quality and comfort at the same price point.
Shokz
Shokz, a leader in the professional sports headphone category, has launched more than ten products, including an open-end headphone called OpenFit.
On April 11th, Shokz released the flagship OpenFit earless Bluetooth earphones for the Comfort Circle series. Yang Yun, CEO of Shokz China, publicly stated that the release of OpenFit Comfort Circle will create a new benchmark for the experience of earphones that are not in the ear.
Electrend believes that Shokz's launch of the concept of "not in the ear" is intended to create its own brand concept, but it actually belongs to the category of open headphones.
At the same time, the release of OpenFit also means that Shokz, which has always followed the bone conduction route, has officially laid out the open headset business.
Good performance and a huge patent moat are both powerful support for Shokz's entry into the open headphones.
In 2022, Shokz's revenue exceeded 6 billion yuan, achieving over 80 times revenue growth in the past 7 years.
As of September 2022, Shokz has carried out more than 3300 intellectual property rights distribution in the world. In 2021, Shokz will become a national key small giant enterprise specializing in specialty and innovation, and won the highest honor in the industry - the 22nd China Patent Gold Award, which was reviewed by the China National Intellectual Property Administration.
This patent moat not only helps Shokz, who does not have fixed assets, obtain loans from banks through intellectual property pledge, solving the previous financial difficulties, but also effectively prevents the entry of latecomers.
At the beginning of this year, the media reported the trial of Shokz v. Xiaomi patent infringement. According to data statistics, in 2021 alone, Shokz filed over 200 patent lawsuits against more than 20 infringing manufacturers, involving more than 20 patents.
Xiaomi
At present, there are 27 earphones on sale in Xiaomi Mall, including one bone conduction earphone GCDEJ01LS.
The first bone conduction earphone released by Xiaomi at the end of last year may represent that Xiaomi has stepped into the door of open earphones and is ahead of its old rivals Huawei, OPPO, etc.
It is reported that the core technology behind Xiaomi bone conduction earphones comes from Liesheng, a rice chain enterprise. Liesheng set up a project to develop bone conduction earphones at the beginning of this year and launched a new independent brand Haylou.
However, peers in open headphones do not seem to be optimistic about the prospects of Xiaomi's open headphones.
Wang Hua believes that Xiaomi, as a consumer electronics and ecological powerhouse, has the main advantages of brand premium and large-scale marketing. It has good control over supply chain resources and product costs. However, open headphones belong to a new technological route and require professional manufacturers to develop and innovate. Simply put, there is a specialization in the art industry.