Electronics

At the 11th Songshan Lake China IC Innovation Summit Forum in 2021, a roundtable forum for IC companies and system vendors hosted by Dai Weimin, the founder, chairman and president of VeriSilicon, the vice chairman of IC Design Branch of China Semiconductor Industry Association, was held in Songshan Lake, Dongguan Hold. The theme of this roundtable forum is "Next Generation Smartphones: Development Opportunities and Challenges of Smart Wearable Devices". Chen Feng, Chief Marketing Officer of Rockchip Microelectronics, Sun Changxu, Senior Partner of Xiaomi Technology Industry Investment Department, and Sun Zhen, CEO of Silicon Technology , Tian Xuehong, Chief Technology Officer of Dapu Communication, Wu Gengyuan, Co-founder and CEO of Shencong Technology, Zhou Jun, Chief Scientist of Rokid, and Jiang Ning, Director of China Semiconductor Technology Strategic Cooperation of imec Institute of Microelectronics, were the guests of the roundtable.

Picture: The scene of the 11th Songshan Lake China IC Innovation Summit Roundtable Forum

In the past three years, where the next generation of smart phones and smart wearable devices are, it has always been an in-depth thinking topic for investors and chip technology companies. How to find another market with such a huge amount of smart phones, who will discover it first, who will explore it first, and who can follow up on components earlier, is a matter of life and death for the company. I remember that this kind of topic was discussed more than once at the Songshan Lake IC Promotion Conference. Of course, the background is also because every time the chip company comes to give a speech, in addition to technological innovation, it is the selling point of the promotion to maximize the mass production.

90% of the recommended ICs have been mass-produced within one year. This is one thing the organizer is most proud of. Mass production and sales are the most important sign of a chip's success. Therefore, the sales of smart phones and wearables based on the demand of C-end consumers are naturally the most important market for domestic chips. Besides, it is not easy for industrial medical vehicles to get in. What's more, to reach KK's monthly shipments is limited by the ease of the market, even if it is an international chip giant, it is not so easy to do.

In this forum, everyone first talked about TWS Bluetooth headsets. Sun Changxu believes that future mobile phones will be equipped with TWS Bluetooth headsets as standard. By 2025, it is predicted that every smartphone user will have three pairs of TWS headsets, and the annual shipment will reach 1 billion. The three pairs of TWS headsets correspond to the needs of different scenarios in the car, in the office, and at home.

TWS headsets, with smart watches, can replace 50% of smart phone call scenarios, that is, you can complete calls without using a smart phone. But with the current users using smartphones for less and less time for calls, if this scenario is not the mainstream of mobile phones in the future, will it also affect the purchase of new TWS headsets and mobile phones? You know, domestic smartphone shipments in April 2021 dropped by 34.1% year-on-year, which is a major industry event.

Rockchip Chen Feng always believes that headphones are not physiologically suitable for long-term wearing. Using headphones for more than three hours a day can actually make people extremely uncomfortable. Especially noise-reducing headphones, people’s brains are uncomfortable after wearing them for a long time. Headphones without ambient sound can make people uncomfortable. The Japanese subway does not recommend that passengers use noise-canceling or noise-canceling headphones to avoid safety accidents, but bone conduction headphones are possible, because bone conduction headphones do not isolate environmental sounds. ": All new products that directly compete with mobile phones have been dropped. Each earphone has a main function. Watches are more suitable for health and can be worn for 24 hours. But earphones are not good. Even if it is noise reduction, people still need Feel the real world. In the future, if the brain-computer interface is realized, through brainwave conversation, it will be a more future thing." Chen Feng said.

Rokid Chief Scientist Zhou Jun talked about the market of 3B smart glasses. He said that Rokid's 2B glasses last year realized remote temperature measurement, which is convenient for nurses, doctors and police. This is based on real needs, and the current global epidemic prevention needs should continue to grow significantly.

Regarding the killer application of Apple’s future smart glasses proposed by President Weimin Dai, Zhou Jun believes that the function must be subtracted. There should be no camera, but it can have a function such as 360-degree immersive video live broadcast. He and Sun Changxu both agreed that Apple's smart glasses were launched based on young users, and there will definitely be support for certain gaming functions on the glasses.

Wu Gengyuan, co-founder and CEO of Shencong Technology, believes that there will be not only game functions, but also social functions. Let people leave their phones but not social.

What is the next generation of smart phones? There will definitely be an option for wearable smart devices. Natural man-machine interface and interactive functions are also people who need to do research and development to find better and revolutionary man-machine operation technology. The Apple mobile phone made by Jobs back then replaced the keyboard with a touch screen. Maybe thinking in this direction is more meaningful?