HTC army into the wearable market transition time is running out

[PConline News] HTC, which is increasingly lacking in the smart phone market, has been forced to embark on the road to transformation. Since last year, the company has begun betting on VR, and even recently it was announced that an independent VR company would be established. In addition to VR, wearable devices are also an area that HTC takes very seriously. A year ago, HTC showed great interest in wearable devices. At the time, it also planned to launch a sports bracelet called “Grip”. It even showed the outside world a prototype of this product, but ultimately it was because The time to market was too late to cut this product.

After this, HTC did not give up the wearable market. Recently, it unveiled the wearable package HealthBox that includes the UA Band, UA Heart Rate, and UA Scale, in conjunction with Under Armour, the second largest sports brand in the United States.

These three products were first introduced in the United States today. The package price is $400, but you can also purchase it separately, but the price is relatively more expensive. The UA Band Bracelet alone costs $180, which is $30 more than Fitbit Charge HR. The other two products, UA Heart Rate alone price of 80 US dollars, UA Scale is priced at 180 US dollars.

The UA Band is similar in design to the Nike+ FuelBand, using a large number of arc designs and common snap-on styles. The difference is that the UA Band does not use a curved screen, but it does support touch operations. Users can slide through the screen to view data such as time, motion data, sleep quality, and heart rate. In addition, the bracelet also has a physical button to light up the screen. In terms of battery life, one charge can be used for more than five days.

Unfortunately, UA Band does not have a built-in GPS module and can only estimate the movement distance through the acceleration sensor in the wristband. Therefore, it is not so accurate when recording the motion data. HTC said it will launch new firmware in the next 90 days to increase the accuracy of step counting. After all, there is no GPS module, and it is difficult to greatly improve the firmware update. Although there is no GPS module, it incorporates an optical heart rate sensor that can be used to automatically detect heart rate during sleep and does not require the user to manually turn on sleep mode before going to bed. However, there is a flaw that the sensor can only be used to monitor the heart rate during sleep and cannot be used to monitor the heart rate during exercise.

If you want to monitor your heart rate during exercise, you will need another device in the HealthBox package—the UA Heart Rate Heart Rate Monitor, which can be used for heart rate monitoring in some sports. In addition, there is a UA Scale smart weight scale in the HealthBox package. Like other similar products, it can measure the user's weight and body fat data. The difference is that it can “remember” the user through data. When you step on it, the product will “hello” with you by flashing the LED and tell you how much you need to reduce.

All three products can be connected to the UA Record App, and you can view related data on this app. Maybe it's because it's not fully compatible yet. The three products are somewhat unstable when connected to the App, and the phenomenon of unreadable data often occurs.

On the whole, these three products have remarkable features, such as UA Band's automatic sleep monitoring, UA Scale's smart reminder. However, the number of slots is also relatively large, especially as the wearable products have two major problems: inaccurate recording data and unstable connection to the App. It can be seen that HTC has had a rush to launch these products.

Last year, HTC prepared for the “donely” wearable area, and finally decided to give up because it missed the opportunity. In fact, its decision was very sensible at that time, because the entire wearable market began to gradually cool after an explosion of one or two years. In particular, sports bracelet products have already passed an early adopter period, and many users abandoned it after purchasing a bracelet for a couple of months. The entire market has also stabilized, according to IDC’s third quarter 2015 global wearable market statistics, Fitbit ranked first with 22.2%, Apple Watch ranked second with 18.6%, and millet. Bracelet grabbed a 17.4% share with low price advantage and won third place. While other companies are not doing well, Jawbone announced layoffs of 15% at the end of 2015 due to poor management; Misfit chose to sell to fashion watch company Fossil four years after its establishment.

HTC is now trying to join a sports brand to enter the wearable market, trying to use the influence of sports brands to promote hardware products. Previously HTC and Under Armour also stated that “we will build a highly sophisticated digital product ecosystem in early 2016”. However, this model has actually been proven by Nike to be difficult. After launching two generations of Nike+ FuelBand bracelets, Nike cut off its FuelBand hardware department in April 2014.

After repeatedly missing the opportunity, HTC finally grasped the tail of the wearable boom, but left it with less time and market space.

Comment: As one of the oldest smartphone brands, HTC moves to wear the market after the defeat of the mobile phone battle field, and it is very soon to see how it will develop in the future.

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