March 9, 2015 - fbicgroup.com · Fung business intelligence centre global retail & technology flash...
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1 Fung business intelligence centre global retail & technology flash report: Wearables telcon 2015 Copyright © 2015 The Fung Group, All rights reserved. March 9, 2015 Today, we attended the first day of the Wearables TechCon conference, held in Santa Clara, CA, in the middle of Silicon Valley. We attended technical classes, heard keynote speeches, and met with private companies. Here is a summary of what we heard and learned today • One key theme is that Wearables overall is much bigger and estimates keep rising. The current projections given at the conference are that by 2019 there will be 455 M devices generating $46.5 B revenue. From a size standpoint, the largest will be the healthcare sector with 121 M units and smartwatches will have the most revenue ($21 B). • Another key theme that was prevalent was that Smart Apparel will be a MUCH bigger opportunity than most people originally thought. This will start in fitness and migrate to health and wellness. • Lastly, privacy of data and security were consistent themes throughout the day. They were hotly contested with very different views in several sessions amongst panelists and audience members. KEYNOTE SPEECH: WEARABLES TECHNOLOGIES ENABLING ATHLETES TO UNLEASH THEIR BEST We attended the morning’s keynote speech, which was given by the Senior Director Business Development & Partnerships of adidas Wearable Sports Electronics. adidas, which was founded in Germany, developed an athletic sensor and performancemeasurement system that was used by the German national soccer team (which, incidentally, won the latest World Cup tournament). The goal of the system is for professional and nonprofessional athletes is to work smarter, not necessarily harder, and all types of athletes can benefit from it. adidas’ product is called MiCoach, and it collects a volume of data, including physiological info and physical information, and calculates metrics like power ,relative power ,efficiency and training impact. At present, for us amateur athletes, adidas offers a smart soccer ball outfitted with sensors that measure the ball’s velocity, position and other parameters.
Transcript of March 9, 2015 - fbicgroup.com · Fung business intelligence centre global retail & technology flash...
1 Fung business intelligence centre global retail & technology flash report: Wearables telcon 2015 Copyright © 2015 The Fung Group, All rights reserved.
March 9, 2015
Today, we attended the first day of the Wearables TechCon conference, held in Santa Clara, CA, in the middle of Silicon Valley. We attended technical classes, heard keynote speeches, and met with private companies. Here is a summary of what we heard and learned today
• One key theme is that Wearables overall is much bigger and estimates keep rising. The current projections given at the conference are that by 2019 there will be 455 M devices generating $46.5 B revenue. From a size standpoint, the largest will be the healthcare sector with 121 M units and smartwatches will have the most revenue ($21 B).
• Another key theme that was prevalent was that Smart Apparel will be a MUCH bigger opportunity than most people originally thought. This will start in fitness and migrate to health and wellness.
• Lastly, privacy of data and security were consistent themes throughout the day. They were hotly contested with very different views in several sessions amongst panelists and audience members.
KEYNOTE SPEECH: WEARABLES TECHNOLOGIES ENABLING ATHLETES TO UNLEASH THEIR BEST
We attended the morning’s keynote speech, which was given by the Senior Director Business Development & Partnerships of adidas Wearable Sports Electronics. adidas, which was founded in Germany, developed an athletic sensor and performance-‐measurement system that was used by the German national soccer team (which, incidentally, won the latest World Cup tournament). The goal of the system is
for professional and nonprofessional athletes is to work smarter, not necessarily harder, and all types of athletes can benefit from it. adidas’ product is called MiCoach, and it collects a volume of data, including physiological info and physical information, and calculates metrics like power, relative power, efficiency and training impact. At present, for us amateur athletes, adidas offers a smart soccer ball outfitted with sensors that measure the ball’s velocity, position and other parameters.
2 Fung business intelligence centre global retail & technology flash report: Wearables telcon 2015 Copyright © 2015 The Fung Group, All rights reserved.
STEALING THE THUNDER: THE APPLE WATCH
Stealing a bit of the conference’s thunder, Apple officially announced the new Apple Watch during conference hours, in addition to making a couple of other announcements.
• Apple will start taking orders on April 10 for delivery on April 24 in nine countries
• Prices range from $349–$399 for the Apple Watch Sport to $549–$1,099 for the Apple Watch to $10,000+ for the Apple Watch Edition
• Battery life is up to 18 hours (a full day)
Apple also announced ResearchKit, a set of software interfaces that enable researchers to use the Apple Watch for medical research.
In addition, Apple announced a new, thinner MacBook Pro, starting at $1,299, as well as HBO’s new streaming service, called HBO NOW. The service will be available exclusively on Apple TV (which saw a price reduction, to $69 from $99) in April and also on the Web for $14.99 per month.
TECH CLASS: GETTING YOUR WEARABLE TO MARKET: FROM PROTOTYPE TO PRODUCTION In this class, we heard war stories from an employee of Freescale Semiconductor who worked on a team that designed an open-‐source wearable tech reference module. In designing a wearable device, engineers must decide which reference design to use, and many of those are proprietary or do not include schematic diagrams or bills of materials. Many wearable-‐hardware makers use components for smartphones. However, many of those components are available only for a limited time and are expensive in small quantities. Even though a reference platform such as Android includes the operating system and necessary system software, wearables manufacturers still need a software engineer to build the missing layers up to the application. It is also essential to find a contract manufacturer who is willing and capable of fabricating a complicated, multilayer printer circuit board.
3 Fung business intelligence centre global retail & technology flash report: Wearables telcon 2015 Copyright © 2015 The Fung Group, All rights reserved.
TECH CLASS: ATHLETIC APPLICATIONS OF SENSING TECHNOLOGY This presentation was given by an employee of Seiko Epson, which is leveraging its watch and electronics expertise in the design of wearables. The speaker referred to a scene in the movie Moneyball, commenting that professional sports had transitioned from being driven by the feeling in owners’ and coaches’ guts to being driven by data and statistics. Epson’s product is called M-‐Tracer and it’s a sensor that attaches to a golf club, providing highly accurate information on a player’s swing. The device recalibrates with each swing. Although golf is not a large market, it has been largely unaddressed by wearable tech, and there exists a core base of affluent players who are able and willing to spend on devices that can improve their golf game.
ABOUT GLIDE: • At the wearable conference, the FBIC team met with the CTO of Glide, Jonathan Caras, an
instant video massaging company that allows users to simultaneously broadcast videos to recipients and store messages on the cloud.
• The great feature of Glide is that it is the world’s first and only LIVE video messaging app. This is different from a traditional SMS video attachment that requires uploading from senders and downloading from receivers, which can result in significant delay in communication. The Glide video messages can be up to 5 minutes long and can be shared with up to 50 people in group chats. It is a message version of Google hangout. In addition, Glide videos use only half of the data of video calls.
• Founded in 2012, Glide now already has 10 million users. The company has raised a total of $28.5 million funding by now. Mr. Caras envisions the app to leverage users from major social platforms in the future and anticipates better enable instant communications across space and time using Glide’s technology.
COMING UP ON DAY 2, WE WILL BE ATTENDING: • A keynote from a market researcher titled “Solving the Sock Drawer Problem: How are we
Failing Consumers?”
• A second keynote from the VP of Intel’s New Devices Group titled “Developing, Designing and Defining Wearables”
• More technical presentations on wearables, including medical wearables, Bluetooth and the consumer experience
4 Fung business intelligence centre global retail & technology flash report: Wearables telcon 2015 Copyright © 2015 The Fung Group, All rights reserved.
Deborah Weinswig, CPA Executive Director – Head Global Retail & Technology Fung Business Intelligence Centre New York: 917.655.6790 Hong Kong: +852 6119 1779 [email protected] Marie Driscoll, CFA [email protected]
John Harmon, CFA [email protected] Amy Hedrick [email protected] Aragorn Ho [email protected] John Mercer [email protected] Stephanie Reilly [email protected]
Lan Rosengard [email protected] Jing Wang [email protected]
