era will always drive industry changes. After entering the power era, wires connect the entire world one by one. Today, human beings have begun to seek solutions to get rid of the "wire constraints", so wireless headphones, wireless mouse , wireless keyboard , and even wireless display appeared one after another, and we are moving towards wireless step by step. There are also many types and solutions for
wireless devices. For example, the connection solutions for wireless headphones can be divided into Bluetooth headphones and 2.4G headphones, and the types are divided into TWS, head-mounted, and the very popular bone conduction headphones in the past two years. Interestingly, in the eyes of consumers, although TWS headphones under 200 yuan are cheap, there are also some products with good sound quality. Bone conduction headphones are different, and almost all are garbage within 200 yuan.
Since 2015, the sales of bone conduction headphones have increased a lot every year, which has attracted some manufacturers to enter, but there are still not many powerful companies in the industry. Recently, Xiaomi , a brand new bone conduction headset priced at 699 yuan, was pre-sale. This giant in the mobile phone industry finally couldn't hold back.
Source: Xiaomi
Not everyone is optimistic in the rising bone conduction headphone industry. When discussing the future of the bone conduction headphone industry with Lei Technology's friends, many of them said bluntly that bone conduction headphones have no future.
Whether a product will disappear depends mainly on whether consumers have demand for it. As long as consumers are willing to use it, manufacturers will not give up on this market. Whether the market size of bone conduction headphones can continue to grow in the future depends on the degree of demand of consumers.
Do we need bone conduction headphones?
As early as the Paleolithic Age, humans would sing music around bonfires and use simple-made instruments to sing music and sing loudly. After the civilization was officially established, instruments such as chimes, jambs, guqin flocked to present. Human beings have never stopped their pursuit of music. In the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius , and even expressed the feeling of "I heard the sound of Shao, but I don't know the smell of meat in March."
Until today, there are more types of music and a wider coverage. With the help of electronic devices, it is more convenient for us to listen to music. On the subway and in the company, Xiao Lei can always see people wearing headphones listening to music. Today, when wirelessization has become a trend, TWS headphones have undoubtedly become the hottest new star in the market.
Source: pixabay
Xiao Lei once bought a variety of TWS headphones. He used to wear headphones on the subway and listened to music. Until later he encountered a problem that many TWS headphone users have, that is inflammation of the external auditory canal. If you use too many TWS headphones, it will inevitably produce dirt and breed bacteria. After inserting them into the ear, bacteria may be brought into the ear. Frequent use of earphones may also damage the mucosa in the ear canal, resulting in swelling and pain in the ear canal, tinnitus , hearing loss, etc.
Compared with traditional earphones, the biggest advantage of bone conduction earphones is that they do not need to be put into the ear, so they will not cause diseases such as external auditory canal inflammation, otitis media , etc. The earphones are not inserted into the ears, which also means that the ears can receive external sounds. They are worn when exercising and riding a bicycle. There is no need to worry about the passive noise reduction of the headphones and the music that will cause the surrounding sounds to be unable to be heard clearly.
Source: Shaoyin
In order to solve the problems of in-ear and semi-in-ear headphones, headphone manufacturers have been trying various solutions. The headphone brand we are familiar with Sony has launched open TWS headphones LinkBuds. However, Sony's design is too novel and may not be accepted by the market for the time being. At present, bone conduction headphones are still the best choice.
Of course, bone conduction headphones also have their shortcomings, the two most serious ones are poor sound quality and sound leakage. The bone conduction method of sound is much greater than that of air conduction, and the ears are not blocked, so the sound quality is obviously worse than other earphones of the same price. Some cheap bone conduction headphones can play lossless sound quality music with "full loss of sound quality" effect.
sound leakage is also related to the bone conduction method. When the headphones are working, the vibrator inside will vibrate with the shell, which will drive the surrounding air to vibrate, and the energy cannot be concentrated in cochlear . sound leakage is indeed a serious problem. We wear headphones and listen to music, but the future will not affect the people around us. Bone conduction headphones seem to be putting the cart before the horse.
Source: Nanka
In order to solve the problems of bone conduction headphones, headphone manufacturers have been developing solutions. For example, the global sales champion Nanka has launched AF full-seismic directional technology, which improves sound quality and reduces sound leakage by increasing the vibration area of the vibrator + optimizing the sound direction.
Another bone conduction headphone giant, Shaoyin, uses low-frequency enhancement technology to add an additional CoreCushion low-frequency enhancement unit to the headphones, which is responsible for the output of medium and low-frequency sounds and forms a dual sound unit to solve the problem of poor medium and low-frequency frequencies of bone conduction headphones. Shaoyin Bone Conducting Headphones also have LeakSlayer sound leakage cancellation technology to reduce sound leakage.
The audience of bone conduction earphones are mainly patients with ear disease and middle-aged and elderly people, because middle-aged and elderly people are more likely to suffer from ear disease than young people. Most of the things in the world are not suitable for everyone, but as long as there are users who need it, some manufacturers will want to make this money. The CCD camera that used to be 50 yuan per pound can be quarreled. Moreover, there are really many potential users of bone conduction headphones, and sales are likely to remain rising in the next few years. Can the
bone conduction headphones reach their peak? Data from the "Global and China Bone Conducted Headphone Industry Segmentation In-depth Research Analysis Report" released by
QYR Consulting shows that the global bone conduction headphone market sales reached US$670 million (approximately RMB 4.86 billion) in 2021, and is expected to reach US$3 billion (approximately RMB 21.77 billion) in 2028. The market size has doubled several times in a few years, which is enough to show that the market prospects of bone conduction headphones are good.
However, compared with the entire headphone industry, the bone conduction headphone industry is still far behind. Canalys data shows that the shipment of bone conduction headphones in 2021 was only 8.83 million pairs, with an average price of more than 550 yuan. For comparison, the total sales of TWS headphones in 2021 reached 290 million pairs. In terms of average price of
, the average price of mainstream TWS headphones on e-commerce platforms in 2020 has dropped to 183.3 yuan. American research institution Strategy Analytics said that the average wholesale price of TWS headphones in 2021 has dropped by 19%, and the selling price is also falling, and will gradually fall to less than 100 yuan.
Source: Shaoyin
The reason why manufacturers pursue high-priced products is because the higher the price, the greater the premium space will be. However, the price of bone conduction headphones is too high, and has reached several times that of TWS headphones. It is too far away from consumers, which is obviously not conducive to the full popularization of products.
In addition, Canalys data also shows that bone conduction heads are extremely serious, and the two major manufacturers, Nanka and Shaoyin, both have reached about one-third, leaving only one-third to other manufacturers. With the support of brand effect , Nanka and Shaoyin are more likely to stabilize their own position, and it is not easy for other brands to surpass these two giants.
The bone conduction headphone industry has not yet grown and has entered the leading stage. Although the two leading manufacturers are Chinese manufacturers, excessive headlines in the early stage are not conducive to the development of the industry. Fortunately, many headphone manufacturers have seen opportunities in the bone conduction headphone market. Internationally renowned manufacturers such as SANAG and JBL have entered the market one after another. Giants in the mobile phone industry such as Xiaomi have also entered the market across industries. These highly famous manufacturers may use their popularity to drive the development of the bone conduction headphone industry.
In the long run, due to the influence of sound quality, bone conduction headphones are difficult to get rid of the image of niche demand, but the market size will definitely continue to expand. With the increase in people's attention to health, bone conduction headphones still have opportunities to grow in the future.
What bone conduction headphone manufacturers need to do now is to improve sound quality and reduce prices, and on the other hand, they need to use marketing to let consumers understand the possibility of ear diseases inducing ear diseases, thereby increasing the audience of bone conduction headphones.
Cover image source: Xiaomi
