TWS earphones are one of the biggest highlights of consumer electronics in 2019. In 2016, the Bluetooth Technology Alliance officially released the latest Bluetooth in London.
TWS headphones are one of the biggest highlights of consumer electronics in 2019.
In 2016, the Bluetooth Technology Alliance officially released the latest Bluetooth 5.0 technical standard in London. Officials stated that the new Bluetooth 5.0 standard will far exceed the performance of the Bluetooth 4.2LE version, including that the effective transmission distance will be four times that of the 4.2LE version.
In addition, the maturity of Bluetooth mesh technology also brings greater room for imagination for the future IOT. Major chip manufacturers have also followed the trend of TWS wireless headsets and launched a series of products that support TWS wireless Bluetooth headsets .
As flagship mobile phones gradually cancel the 3.5mm interface in order to achieve the trend of thinness and lightness, pain points such as battery life, transmission, sound quality, and price have been improved, which has brought huge room for growth to the entire TWS headset market.
According to GFK data, wireless headset shipments in 2016 were only 9.18 million units, with a market size of less than 2 billion yuan. GFK predicts that wireless headset shipments will increase by 41% year-on-year in 2018, and the market size will reach US$5.4 billion. By 2020, the market size of TWS wireless headsets will reach US$11 billion.
Zhiyan Consulting predicts that global TWS headsets will achieve rapid growth from 2018 to 2020, with shipments reaching 65 million units, 100 million units and 150 million units respectively, with a compound annual growth rate of 51.9%. It is expected that as the sound quality and functionality of wireless headphones continue to improve, the penetration rate of wireless headphones is expected to continue to increase in the future.
The new version of AirPods was released, Huawei , Xiaomi and traditional headphone manufacturers have followed suit.
The new AirPods were released on March 20, 2019. According to the first teardown of by I Love Audio Network, the product is equipped with a new H1 chip. It supports voice to wake up Siri, has longer battery life, and is priced at 1,279 yuan. It is also equipped with a new wireless charging box version, priced at 1,599 yuan.
Huawei currently releases two TWS true wireless Bluetooth headsets, FreeBuds and FreeBuds 2 Pro. Among them, FreeBuds 2 Pro is Huawei’s first true wireless Bluetooth headset that supports the HWA standard. It also has the latest bone voiceprint unlocking technology.
Xiaomi has released two of its own TWS true wireless Bluetooth headsets, Xiaomi Air and AirDots Youth Edition. The biggest feature of Xiaomi Bluetooth headset Air is that it supports active noise reduction, and the main and secondary ears can be switched freely and can be used independently. The AirDots Youth Edition uses an upgraded Bluetooth 5.0 connection, and both headphones support Xiaoai’s self-powered voice assistant.
Traditional headphone manufacturers such as Bose and 1More have also launched their own TWS headsets. It is expected that 2019 will usher in a new explosion of wireless headsets.
Intelligent voice portal for the future Internet of Things
With the implementation of artificial intelligence technology, Internet giants such as Google , Amazon , JD.com and Baidu are rushing to deploy in the consumer IoT and have launched smart speakers one after another. According to Strategy Analysis statistics, in the global smart speaker distribution pattern in the fourth quarter of 2018, the top three shipments were Amazon, Google and Alibaba, accounting for a total of 73% of the market share.
TWS Bluetooth headset + smart speaker is expected to open the entrance to intelligent interaction. smart speakers have always been regarded as the entrance to smart homes. In home scenarios, TWS headsets can be used as an auxiliary entrance for sound interaction, forming a closed loop of smart speakers + TWS headset entrances. Industry chain manufacturers involved in
: The industry chain of
TWS mainly includes ODM manufacturers and wireless headset component manufacturers, including main control chips, memory chips, FPC, voice acceleration sensors, MEMS, overcurrent protection ICs, batteries, etc., involving The ODM and acoustic device suppliers include Luxshare Precision , Goertek Co., Ltd., Gongda Electroacoustic , and Yingtong Communication.
chip manufacturers include Hengxuan, Realtek , Luoda, etc.; storage manufacturers include GigaDevice (Nor Flash) and Adesto; Weir, a design and distribution manufacturer of discrete devices and passive components; in addition, Sunwanda, Pengding Holdings and some Taiwanese manufacturers such as Yaohua and Hualijie will also benefit from the rise of the TWS headset market.
recommends focusing on: Luxshare Precision, GigaDevice, Goertek, as well as small and medium-sized market capitalization Yingtong Communications and Gongda Electronics.
risk warning: downstream demand is lower than expected, industry competition intensifies, exchange rate risks, and the impact of the international situation.
1. Why can TWS headphones quickly explode the market?
1.1 Bluetooth 5.0 technology is coming
In 2016, the Bluetooth Technology Alliance officially released the latest Bluetooth 5.0 technical standard in London. Officials stated that the new Bluetooth 5.0 standard will far exceed the performance of the Bluetooth 4.2LE version, including that the effective transmission distance will be four times that of the 4.2LE version.
From Bluetooth 1.0 to 5.0:
ØThe first generation of Bluetooth: early exploration of short-distance communication
ØThe second generation of Bluetooth: the EDR era of power transmission rate
ØThe third generation of Bluetooth: High Speed, the transmission rate is up to 24Mbps
ØThe fourth generation of Bluetooth ：Mainly recommend "Low" Energy" low-power consumption
Ø The fifth generation of Bluetooth: opening the door to the "Internet of Things" era
Bluetooth 5.0 performance has been improved in an all-round way
Ø Transmission capabilities: Bluetooth 5.0 has faster and farther transmission capabilities in low-power mode, and the transmission rate is Bluetooth Twice that of Bluetooth 4.2, the effective transmission distance is four times that of Bluetooth 4.2, and the data packet capacity is eight times that of Bluetooth 4.2.
Ø Indoor navigation: supports indoor positioning and navigation function, and combined with WiFi can achieve indoor positioning with an accuracy of less than 1 meter.
Ø Smart Home: Optimize the bottom layer for IoT and strive to serve smart homes with lower power consumption and higher performance.
Mesh Mesh Network: The key to realizing the Internet of Things
Mesh Mesh Network is an independently developed network technology. It can use Bluetooth devices as signal relay stations to cover data to a very large physical area. It is compatible with Bluetooth 4 and 5 series. protocol. The
Mesh network enables devices to move from traditional one-to-one or one-to-many micro-network relationships to many-to-many relationships. Each device node in the
network can send and receive information. As long as a device is connected to the gateway, the information can be relayed between nodes, allowing the message to be transmitted to a location farther than the normal transmission distance of radio waves. Mesh This characteristic of the network enables it to be used in a wider range of scenarios.
Internet of Things: The new home of future Bluetooth technology
Since 1998, the Bluetooth protocol has been updated many times, from audio transmission to IoT data transmission focusing on low power consumption. On the one hand,
maintains the backward compatibility of Bluetooth devices. On the other hand, Bluetooth is also being used in more and more Internet of Things devices. In the future, the main focus of Bluetooth will be on the Internet of Things, not just mobile devices.
The market space for Bluetooth devices is vast. According to SIG's market report, by the end of 2018, global Bluetooth device shipments will reach 4 billion, of which: mobile phones, tablets, and PC shipments will reach 2 billion, and audio and entertainment equipment shipments will reach 1.2 billion , 86% of the cars manufactured worldwide will be equipped with Bluetooth functions, and the shipment volume of smart home Bluetooth devices can reach 650 million. Smart buildings, smart cities, smart industries, etc. will all become potential tracks in the future.
Bluetooth is expected to become its own IoT system. The advent of Bluetooth 5.0 technology and the maturity of Bluetooth mesh technology have also brought greater room for imagination to the future IOT.
The high transmission bandwidth of Bluetooth 5.0 also makes bilateral calls possible with TWS true wireless Bluetooth headsets. Currently, the main mobile phone models using Bluetooth 5.0 on the market are as follows:
.2 Flagship mobile phones cancel the 3.5mm audio interface
Smartphones are non-porous Major trends are boosting the Bluetooth headset market.
Nowadays, more and more iPhone and Android mobile devices are gradually canceling the 3.5mm headphone jack and combining it with the USB-C/Lightning port charging jack.
Due to the reduced number of openings in mobile phones, charging and listening to music can only be chosen one of the two. In addition, wired headphones often have a lot of wires and adapters tangled together, causing a lot of inconvenience. In contrast, TWS headphones have many advantages:
- adopts a wireless structure design, eliminating the hassle of wires and making them more convenient to carry during sports.
- implements wireless stereo , improving sound quality and stable connection.
- battery life has been improved.
- headphones use multiple sensors, artificial intelligence assistants and convenient entrances to smart homes.
- can be used in various ways. It can be used alone or shared.
.3 smart voice joins, TWS becomes the next entrance
Currently Apple AirPods , Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Microsoft Surface Headphone, Huawei and other giants are developing smart headphones , TWS Bluetooth headsets are expected to become the next generation of Internet giants A new favorite.
Apple upgrades AirPods to seamlessly connect with Siri
The new AirPods hardware can be paired with iPhone, iPad and Mac through Bluetooth 5.0 standard, which will bring it longer battery life and lower power consumption, and the stability of wireless connection will also be improved be strengthened.
The new AirPods earphones will also support the "Hey Siri" voice activation function. Users do not need to touch the earphones, just shout "Hey Siri" from the air to wake up the voice assistant and interact with it. You can use "Hey Siri" to control music playback and adjust volume without having to double-tap AirPods to wake up Siri.
Amazon layout Alexa smart headset
Qualcomm officially announced that it has reached a cooperation with Amazon to jointly develop TWS Bluetooth headsets based on Alexa assistant, and launched the industry's first end-to-end Bluetooth smart headset reference design, allowing Android mobile phone users to use Alexa applications Activate Alexa at the touch of a button so you can use Alexa on the go. This reference design covers nearly all the core hardware and software needed to help manufacturers develop advanced Bluetooth headsets more efficiently and cost-effectively.
terminal manufacturers no longer need to manage a large amount of coding in order to integrate Alexa, nor do they need to add any communication hardware beyond Bluetooth, which helps reduce costs and speed up development.
In addition to supporting Alexa, this solution also supports longer playback time and battery life through ultra-low power consumption, and integrates support for cVc noise reduction technology.
Google is developing Assistant smart headphones
According to reports from China Electronics Network, Google will soon launch TWS true wireless headphones, which will support Bluetooth V5.0 and the next generation of true wireless Bluetooth new technology TWS Plus.
Microsoft launches Cortana smart headphone Surface Headphone
In October 2018, Microsoft released its first smart headphone device, Surface Headphone, with built-in smart assistant Cortana (Cortana). It is a wireless Bluetooth headset with 4 noise-cancelling microphones. The headset is light gray, weighs 0.64 pounds (approximately 290g), has a battery life of 15 hours, and can provide active interactive guidance, read emails, and initiate conference calls with voice interaction.
Previously, due to the immaturity of the technology, headsets were launched first, and Microsoft is already trying to add Cortana to TWS headsets.
Huawei Honor FlyPods smart headphones: Voice wake-up YOYO
AI smart wireless Bluetooth headphones - Honor FlyPods supports voice wake-up, touch operation, built-in bone voiceprint sensor, wireless charging, and supports the latest HWA high-definition Bluetooth audio transmission protocol.
can wake up YOYO to make calls, check maps, set alarm clocks, etc., and when listening to songs, you can also say "previous song", "next song" and other language commands to switch songs. You can directly say "answer the call" or "reject the call" to complete the quick operation. In most cases, there is no need to take out the phone.
.4 The price has become more affordable
TWS earphones Apple AirPods were priced at 1,288 yuan when they were first released, which was unaffordable for many users. However, since October 2018, many TWS Bluetooth 5.0 headsets on the market have dropped to less than 100 yuan, which is 10 times the price of AirPods. Many consumers have begun to try TWS Bluetooth headsets, which has brought significant benefits to the entire market.
The price of the finished product is close to the people. It is inseparable from the technological innovation breakthroughs of the upstream chip manufacturers, and the TWS user experience can be continuously improved. Moreover, the latest TWS headphone chips are more integrated and cost-effective.
2. The market space for TWS wireless headsets is vast
According to GFK data, the shipment volume of wireless headsets in 2016 was only 9.18 million units, and the market size was less than 2 billion yuan. GFK predicts that wireless headset shipments will increase by 41% year-on-year in 2018, and the market size will reach US$5.4 billion. By 2020, the market size of TWS wireless headsets will reach US$11 billion.
Zhiyan Consulting predicts that global TWS headsets will achieve rapid growth from 2018 to 2020, with shipments reaching 65 million units, 100 million units and 150 million units respectively, with a compound annual growth rate of 51.9%. It is expected that as the sound quality and functionality of wireless headphones continue to improve, the penetration rate of wireless headphones is expected to continue to increase in the future.
According to ZDC data, the current market attention on wireless headphones is as high as 68%, which is much higher than the attention on other functions. At the same time, pain points such as battery life, transmission, sound quality, and price that previously restricted the development of true wireless headsets have all seen significant marginal improvements.
.1 Major chip manufacturers are actively deploying
Major chip manufacturers have also followed the trend of TWS wireless headsets and launched a series of products that support TWS wireless Bluetooth headsets. The
TWS headset solution has flourished from the CBA combination at the beginning of 2018 to now, with 8 major chip brands launching 18 solutions. Among them are Luoda, Zhuorong, Juxin, Hengxuan, Cypress, Realtek, Qualcomm, etc.
In addition, there are many original chip manufacturers on the way, and many solutions are competing to enrich the choices of brands and consumers. With the popularization of Bluetooth 5.0 technology, the growth momentum of wireless Bluetooth headsets is good and is expected to usher in explosive growth in the next few years.
(1) Qualcomm
Company Profile:
Qualcomm Qualcomm was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in San Diego, California, with more than 33,000 employees around the world. Qualcomm is a global leader in the research and development of 3G, 4G and 5G technologies. It has provided technology licenses to many manufacturers around the world, involving all brands of telecommunications equipment and consumer electronics equipment in the world.
Qualcomm firmly believes that imagination and innovation can promote technological progress and benefit end users. Dr. Irwin Jacobs, co-founder and chairman of Qualcomm, said: "We created Qualcomm with innovative ideas and hope to make a difference on the road of innovation." For more than 20 years, Since then, Qualcomm has invested heavily in research and development and created thousands of innovative ideas, methods and products, thereby changing the world of wireless communications.
Qualcomm’s Bluetooth audio SoCs have been at the forefront of industry innovation for nearly a decade. Qualcomm’s performance and flexibility solutions have powered many of the most iconic headsets and headsets from leading consumer electronics brands. A huge success. Qualcomm is continuing to work hard to improve our technologies and platforms to promote innovation in hearable products and help customers achieve product differentiation.
(2) Hengxuan Technology Co., Ltd.
Company Profile:
Hengxuan Technology Co., Ltd. was established in early 2015 and is headquartered in Shanghai. It is the most innovative chip design company in China. The company focuses on the R&D and sales of RF SOC chips for wireless audio platforms, providing customers with audio system-level chips with WIFI/BT wireless connections, software and hardware development kits, and complete reference design solutions to help customers quickly launch industry-leading wireless intelligence product.
technical situation:
company advocates a simple engineer R&D culture and has a strong atmosphere of technological innovation. At the same time, with strong financial strength as support, the company is committed to technological breakthrough innovation and is determined to develop world-class products.
- Low-power chip technology
- Stable wireless connection
- High-quality audio processing
- Platform-based software development
- Noise reduction integrated main control
(3) Luoda Technology Co., Ltd.
Company profile:
Luoda Technology was established in 2001 , headquartered in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan, is an industry-leading IC design leader.The company develops highly integrated circuits for wireless communications, provides customers with high-performance, low-cost various radio frequency and mixed-signal integrated circuit components, and Bluetooth wireless communication chips, and provides low-power microprocessor system chips with various types of wireless communication technologies. , connecting hundreds of millions of smart devices in the future Internet of Things world.
main products:
products mainly include mobile phone power amplifier (PA), radio frequency switch (T/R Switch), low noise power amplifier (LNA), digital TV and set-top box satellite (DVB-S/S2) tuner, WiFi radio frequency Transceivers, Bluetooth low energy single chips, Bluetooth wireless audio system solutions, WiFi IoT single chips, satellite positioning chips, and smart device and wearable system solutions.
Product Application:
At present, Luoda's products have been widely used in various mobile phones, digital TVs and set-top boxes, vehicle tracking systems, Bluetooth audio equipment, wearable products and various smart home devices.
Technology:
- develop highly integrated circuits for wireless communications
- high-performance, low-cost various radio frequency and mixed-signal integrated circuit components, and Bluetooth wireless communication chips
- Bluetooth low-power single chip and Bluetooth wireless audio system solutions
- various types Low-power microprocessor system chip for wireless communication technology
(3) Realtek Semiconductor
Company Profile:
Realtek Semiconductor was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Hsinchu Science Park in Taiwan's "Silicon Valley". It focuses on the research and development and design of integrated circuit products as its corporate positioning, integrating product research and development, design, and testing. and sales, it has developed high-performance, high-quality and cost-effective IC solutions that are widely recognized and welcomed by the global market. It is an internationally renowned professional IC design company and a leading smart wireless audio chip supplier.
Realtek has successfully developed application integrated circuits in a variety of fields. Its product lines span communication networks, computer peripherals, multimedia and other technologies, keeping pace with the mainstream of the world's advanced industries.
(4) PixArt
Company Profile:
PixArt, founded in July 1998, is mainly dedicated to the design, research and development, manufacturing and marketing of CMOS image sensors and applications. In April 1999, it acquired Condorvision Technology, Inc. of the United States, which mainly develops CMOS sensors. The current paid-in capital is NT$1.24 billion. The main management team is led by the chairman, Mr. Huang Senhuang, who has assembled an outstanding design team in the industry. Photorealistic currently has extensive experience in analog IC design and image sensing IC design, and is one of the world's leading manufacturers of CMOS image sensors.
(5) Action Core Technology Co., Ltd.
Company Profile:
Action Core ( Zhuhai ) Technology Co., Ltd. was established in June 2014 and is headquartered in Zhuhai. It is China's leading low-power consumer system-level chip design manufacturer . It has industry-leading levels in ultra-low power consumption design, advanced semiconductor technology and high integration. Provide professional chips and complete solutions for wireless audio and smart hearables, smart multimedia, smart computing and the Internet of Things.
technical situation:
company has independently developed ultra-high-definition multimedia audio and video coding and decoding technology, efficient power management technology, wireless communication technology including radio frequency technology, audio pre-processing and post-processing technology, and high-performance low-power multi-core CPU and GPU integration and other core technology groups to provide customers with professional chips and complete solutions as well as an open source platform that facilitates their secondary development. Actions Technology's multimedia chip products occupy a leading position in the global market.
(6) Unisoc
As a core enterprise in the Unisoc integrated circuit industry chain, Unisoc is committed to the independent research and development and design of core chips in the fields of mobile communications and the Internet of Things. Its products cover 2G/3G/4G/5G mobile communication basebands. Chips, IoT chips, radio frequency chips, wireless connection chips, security chips, TV chips.
Currently, UNISOC has more than 4,500 employees, 14 technology R&D centers and 8 customer support centers around the world. It is committed to becoming the top three mobile phone baseband chip design companies in the world, China's largest pan-chip supplier and China's leading 5G communication chip company, and through the two-wheel drive of independent innovation and international cooperation, it has steadily become one of the world's top chip design companies.
.2 TWS earphones have become the In addition to ODM manufacturers Luxshare and Goertek, we believe that the increased volume of TWS is expected to become the X factor in the supply and demand of high-capacity NOR Flash!
Each headset requires a 128M NOR Flash to store firmware and related codes. Each fast screen requires an 8-16M NOR for demura optical compensation. Due to the high low power consumption requirements, the current pattern is good and the A-share leader Manufacturers are accelerating entry and share exceeds expectations.
With the release of new airpods, relevant third-party organizations immediately conducted detailed dismantling. We believe that this can drive the demand for high-end 128M NOR flash for TWS headphones. At the same time, in addition to Apple, based on MediaTek and Qualcomm CSR platforms Products have also adopted similar solutions. We continue to emphasize that TWS headsets will become a bright spot in consumer electronics in 2019-2020 and will also become the X factor of high-end NOR.
From the disassembly report, we found an IC with silk screen printing 25SL 128A 1829, that is, a 128M NOR Flash
This disassembly verified the demand for high-end NOR in TWS headsets, and how much NOR Flash production value can this application drive? We further calculated:
1) The 128M NOR used in wireless headsets is a low-power product, and customer A’s purchase price is relatively high, so the unit price of NOR Flash used for its headsets is about US$0.15 higher than the current market price;
2) At present, we estimate that airpods Shipment volume in 2019 is between 45 million and 50 million units, corresponding to 90 million and 100 million units of 128M NOR. Flash;
3) Therefore, customer A’s demand for NOR Flash alone is 45.5-58.5 million US dollars, corresponding to an output value of about 350 million;
4) If it can get ~60% of the main supply, it can correspondingly boost revenue of more than 200 million. ;
Combining the above calculations with industry shipments and share tracking, we estimate that domestic NOR Leading Flash manufacturers are expected to benefit significantly from this. At the same time, we predict that this year will be the first year of the explosion of TWS headsets from Huawei, Samsung, OPPO and other manufacturers, which will further boost the prosperity of related components and ODM manufacturers.
3. New version of AirPods released, supporting wireless charging
.1 New version of AirPods with upgraded functions
The new AirPods was released on March 20, 2019. The product is equipped with a new H1 chip, supports voice wake-up to Siri, has longer battery life, and is priced at 1,279 Yuan, and the version equipped with a new wireless charging box is priced at 1,599 Yuan.
The new AirPods are equipped with Apple’s latest H1 headphone chip, making the connection more stable and faster. According to the information on the official website, the new AirPods can switch devices twice as fast as before, and the connection speed when making calls is 1.5 times as fast as before.
The sound delay during gaming has been reduced by a full 30% compared to before. The addition of the voice wake-up function for Siri also greatly enriches the convenience of operation.
The new AirPods with a wireless charging case can be used for 5 hours on a single charge and last for 3 hours of calls. As long as the earphones are placed in the box to charge for 15 minutes, the earphones can be used for an additional 3 hours.
.2 AirPods shipments are expected to double in 2019
AirPods have become the most popular wireless headphones in the United States in just one month. According to data from market research agency Slice Intelligence, they have occupied 26% of the market in just one month after their release. share, exceeding that of Beats and Bose headphones.
According to the latest data from Counterpoint, in the fourth quarter of 2018, AirPods shipments accounted for 60% of the market, reaching 12.5 million units, and sales far exceeded that of other products. The second most shipped TWS wireless headsets are Jabra Elite Active 65t, Samsung Gear IconX, etc.
We estimate that the shipment volume of 2018E/2019E/2020E AirPods will be 0.26/0.5/070 million units, and is expected to exceed 100 million units in 2021, with shipments increasing 100.0%/92.3%/40.0%/42.9% respectively year-on-year.
.3 What is the supply chain of AirPods?
According to the disassembly of the I Love Audio Network, the earbud part of the AirPods earphones contains a single-sided circuit board (PCB), a double-sided PCB, and a small hose extending to the bottom of the Airpods.
On the single-sided PCB, we can see the W1 SoC, a Cypress SoC, a low-dropout (LDO) regulator from STMicroelectronics, and a few other components.
On the double-sided PCB, we found a Maxim audio codec and a Bosch BMA280 accelerometer on one side.
On the other side, we find STMicroelectronics’ ultra-low-power 3-axis accelerometer, STMicroelectronics LDO regulator, an unidentified light sensor and some passive components.
In the hose and battery assembly at the end of each Airpods, we see the MEMS microphone assembly from Goertek.
In addition, from the disassembly report, we found an IC with silk screen printing 25SL 128A 1829, which is a 128M NOR Flash. TWS headphones are suitable for high-end 128M NOR Driven by the demand for flash, in addition to Apple, products based on MediaTek and Qualcomm CSR platforms have also adopted similar solutions. We continue to emphasize that TWS headsets will become a bright spot in consumer electronics in 2019-2020, and will also become the X of high-end NOR factor.
The design and number of chips of each Airpods are the same. The main IC components and their quantities inside the two earbuds and the charging box are as shown in the following table:
4. Huawei, Xiaomi and traditional headphone manufacturers have followed suit
.1 FreeBuds 2 Pro Huawei’s first TWS headset that supports the HWA standard
Huawei Two TWS true wireless Bluetooth headsets were released, FreeBuds and FreeBuds 2 Pro. Among them, Huawei FreeBuds 2 Pro is Huawei’s first true wireless Bluetooth headset that supports the HWA standard. Huawei FreeBuds 2 pro not only supports Hi-Res Wireless Audio, but also supports wireless charging.
also has the latest bone voiceprint unlocking technology, which can accurately obtain the owner's bone voiceprint information when speaking. With AI artificial intelligence recognition technology, the owner's identity verification can be completed in one sentence.
Through the disassembly report of I Love Audio Network, we can see that FreeBuds 2 Pro uses a dynamic speaker, and the main control chip is BES2300 from BES Hengxuan.
BES Hengxuan BES2300 is a fully integrated adaptive active noise reduction solution that supports Bluetooth 5.0, LBRT low-frequency forwarding technology and dual-mode Bluetooth 5.0. It also supports the third generation FWS full wireless stereo technology, dual microphones, etc., and supports adaptive active noise reduction. Noise reduction technology also supports external heart rate sensors, acceleration sensors, etc.
Dialog's DA14195 audio processing chip can process PCM audio up to 192kHz, 32bit, and supports environmental noise, echo cancellation, virtual surround sound and other functions. It also supports up to 6 microphones for beamforming and location-aware applications, better supporting applications that require awareness of the location of sound.
FreeBuds 2 Pro charging box uses STMicroelectronics STMicroelectronics STM32F030 Cortex-M3 high-performance MCU, which integrates 1MB Flash memory, 128KB SRAM and USB 2.0 controller. It is also equipped with IDT P9221 wireless charging reception solution, which is a highly integrated WPC-1.2.2 compatible 15W wireless power receiver and uses magnetic sensor charging technology.
FreeBuds 2 Pro bone voiceprint ID makes payment simple. Take out your phone, no unlocking or other operations are required, just say "Alipay payment" or "WeChat payment", and the QR code interface will automatically open.
This headset has a talk time of up to 2.5 hours on a single charge; with multiple additional charges stored in the charging box, the talk time can reach 15 hours and listening to music up to 20 hours. In addition, the HUAWEI Mate 20 Pro mobile phone can charge the headset Reverse charging of the battery pack makes it easy to replenish power when out and about.
Through the dismantling of Huawei Freebuds2 Pro on the I Love Audio Network, we found that Huawei TWS headphones mainly include the following electronic components:
.2 Xiaomi Bluetooth headset Air supports active noise reduction
At the MIDC 2018 Xiaomi AloT Developer Conference, Xiaomi announced Xiaomi’s special acoustic standard laboratory project, Products that meet Xiaomi's acoustic standards already include Xiaoai speakers, Xiaomi mobile phones , Xiaomi laptops, Xiaomi smart alarm clocks, etc.
In 2018, Xiaomi released two of its own TWS true wireless Bluetooth headsets, Xiaomi True Wireless Bluetooth Headset Air and Xiaomi Bluetooth Headset AirDots Youth Edition.
The biggest feature of Xiaomi Bluetooth Headset Air is that it supports active noise reduction, and the main and secondary ears can be switched freely and can be used independently. The Xiaomi Bluetooth headset AirDots Youth Edition uses an upgraded Bluetooth 5.0 connection. Both headsets support Xiaoai’s self-powered voice assistant.
By disassembling the Xiaomi Air, we found that the Xiaomi Bluetooth headset mainly includes the following electronic components:
Compared with the relatively high price of Airpods, the products launched by domestic manufacturers are more cost-effective. According to GFK statistics, China's TWS headset market sales increased from 566,000 units in the first quarter to 1.354 million units in the third quarter in 2018, with an average growth rate during the period. is 46.64%. According to statistics from Zhiyan Consulting, the global TWS headset market sales in 2019 will reach 100 million units.
.3 1More, Bose, Edifier and other manufacturers actively followed up
At the 2019 CES exhibition, 1more launched the latest true wireless noise-canceling headphones using Qualcomm’s Bluetooth audio system integrated chip. One of the highlights of
is the use of "moving iron direct drive" technology in hardware, which produces sound through a high-frequency moving iron unit without passing through the noise reduction unit, which can retain the richness of the sound to the greatest extent and reduce interference. In addition, it also supports high-definition AAC and aptX audio technology, forming a "single-acting iron + single-moving coil" dual-unit sound design. The second highlight of
is that it supports fast charging in terms of battery life. The headset battery box only needs to be charged for 1 hour and can support up to 24 hours of continuous use. At the same time, the headset supports a variety of voice assistant controls, including Siri, Goole and Amazon Alexa. 1MORE Stylish true wireless earphones have started pre-orders in early April.
On January 24, 2018, BOSE launched a new SoundSport Free fully wireless headset. This headset is based on a true wireless design and strives to achieve a new balance between size, performance and stability, which can meet almost all people's needs for a sports headset.
Each earphone weighs only 10 grams and measures 2.8 cm high and 3.0 cm deep. SoundSport Free wireless headphones are equipped with a new signal system to maximize wireless signal strength and reliability. It can also maintain a stable connection with your mobile phone or tablet device - regardless of distance and space, SoundSport Free wireless headphones can always maintain a smooth connection.
Bose digital signal processing technology, volume optimization equalizer and rechargeable lithium-ion battery form a miniature acoustic system that can provide up to 5 hours of strong, clear music without any noise worries.
Below, I Love Audio Network disassembles the components and motherboard of the headphone charging box of BOSE SOUNDSPORT FREE headphones.
Weltrend WT51F116 is a microprocessor with LCD display function launched by Weltrend Electronics Co., Ltd., a Taiwanese IC design company. The product adopts the advanced 1T 8052 microprocessor core, wide and low operating voltage, and has high anti-noise capability.
product ESD chips, full-speed hubs and voltage regulators are all manufactured by Texas Instruments. Texas Instruments is a global semiconductor design and manufacturing company specializing in the design and manufacturing of analog technology, digital signal processing and microcontroller semiconductors.
Among them, TLV70433 low dropout voltage regulator. It has the advantages of wide input voltage range, low quiescent current, wide temperature range, and can be stabilized with any capacitor.
has flexible solutions and highly differentiated products. The headset uses Qualcomm CSR8670 true wireless Bluetooth audio solution.The dual-core architecture includes an applications processor, an ultra-low-power Kalimba DSP, and embedded flash memory, allowing the CSR8670 to provide a very flexible solution.
5. The smart voice portal of the future Internet of Things
lOT layout has great prospects, and smart speakers are taking advantage of the trend
The Internet of Things (lOT) is the abbreviation of Internet of Things. It is based on the Internet, extending and extending the user end between objects and objects. information exchange, thereby forming an information network that interconnects everything. With the implementation of artificial intelligence technology, Internet giants such as Google, Amazon, JD.com and Baidu are rushing to deploy in the consumer IoT and have successively launched smart speakers.
According to Strategy Analysis statistics, in the global smart speaker distribution pattern in the fourth quarter of 2018, the top three shipments were Amazon, Google and Alibaba, accounting for a total of 73% of the market share.
TWS Bluetooth headset + smart speaker is expected to open the entrance to intelligent interaction
Smart speakers have always been regarded as the entrance to smart homes. In home scenarios, TWS headsets can be used as auxiliary entrances for sound interaction, forming a closed loop of smart speakers + TWS headset entrances. According to statistical analysis by the China Industrial Research Institute, the scale of China's smart speaker market is showing an upward trend and is expected to reach 1.16 billion yuan in 2020, with a year-on-year growth rate of 46.8% to 105.6% between 2016 and 2020.
In the future Internet of Things world, TWS headsets are expected to join the smart home ecological chain with their multi-scenario applications, and their application scope will be further expanded.
6. Future upgrade trends of TWS earphones
Intelligent noise reduction leads the future trend
Currently, most TWS wireless earphones have problems such as poor call noise reduction and not supporting intelligent noise reduction. Airpods uses a voice acceleration sensor and a microphone using beamforming technology to reduce noise; through the comprehensive use of motion sensors, acoustic sensors and detection algorithms, Bird Audio can automatically identify the scene and adapt to the best noise reduction parameters, that is, intelligent adjustment Active noise reduction technology; Sony has become the first chip-level solution manufacturer, and its newly launched headset WH-1000MX3 uses a customized HD noise reduction processor QN1.
At this time, domestic manufacturers are also constantly making attempts. Airoda Technology has launched the AB1532, a low-power chip suitable for Bluetooth headsets, which supports multiple mic and peripheral interfaces, increases audio transmission bandwidth and improves anti-interference capabilities.
As smart technology becomes increasingly mature and overall power consumption decreases, it is just around the corner to put noise reduction chips into TWS Bluetooth headsets. Noise reduction will also become a new development direction for TWS Bluetooth headsets.
Health monitoring brings new highlights
With the wide application of sensors, greatly improved accuracy and continuous reduction in size, it has become possible for TWS wireless headsets to realize functions such as motion status monitoring and physiological health judgment.
is equipped with a biochip that can undoubtedly monitor heart rate, body temperature, and calories. Samsung's first GearIcoX Bluetooth headset includes recording of exercise time and distance, as well as calories burned.
However, how to achieve biological intelligence while maintaining a small size is still a challenge faced by most manufacturers. There is no doubt that TWS headsets will be the next smart wearable hit.
Intelligent voice functions are in full bloom
Currently, mobile phone brand manufacturers such as Huawei, OPPO, Xiaomi, and APPLE have launched a new TWS headset equipped with intelligent voice functions. Airpods2 is a new generation of wireless headphones launched after two years. One of the main highlights is Siri smart phone. Voice assistance will become the main breakthrough direction for solution providers in the future to improve the time required for voice wake-up, the efficiency of the back-and-forth interaction process, and the quality of voice feedback, giving consumers a better experience and operational flexibility.
High sound quality is an eternal pursuit
For audio equipment, consumers’ pursuit of good sound quality is eternal. High-definition audio is transmitted to wireless headphones through Bluetooth on transmitters such as mobile phones, but audio files are often compressed due to bandwidth limitations. The large-scale use of
Bluetooth 5.0 technology provides larger capacity communication bandwidth for audio channels and reduces sound quality loss.Qualcomm, Sony, Huawei and other representative companies are constantly introducing high-definition audio decoding technology to achieve higher-quality sound output.
Low-power technology breakthroughs pave the way to intelligence
Although most TWS headsets are currently equipped with charging boxes, the main application scenario of wireless headsets is mobile and needs to be connected to a mobile phone for use, which requires them to have lower power consumption.
currently. Qualcomm has launched three series of chip solutions: QCC5100, QCC302X, and QCC303X focusing on ultra-low power consumption to meet the development needs of TWS headsets.
The future development trend of intelligent and bio-based TWS wireless headsets, as well as the demand for more chips, will greatly require low-power support.
Low latency upgrades user experience. In addition to meeting consumers' needs for daily functions such as music, calls, and videos, TWS headsets still need to meet the application and demand for games, VR and other scenarios.
achieves low latency in audio transmission, improves audio transmission efficiency, and improves response speed, which has become a new selling point for the development of TWS headsets. Qualcomm has launched aptX Adaptive audio encoder technology for gaming scenarios, which can control sound delay to 50~80 milliseconds.
7. What are the supply chains involved?
AirPods is currently the strongest growing product among wireless headphones. We estimate that the shipment volume of AirPods in 2018E/2019E/2020E will be 0.26/0.5/070 million units, and is expected to exceed 100 million units in 2021, with shipments increasing 100.0% year-on-year respectively. 92.3%/40.0%/42.9%.
Currently, only a small number of iPhone users are using AirPods, and the penetration rate is still relatively low. Therefore, there is huge room for growth in AirPods shipments.
In addition, Android mobile phone manufacturers such as Huawei and Xiaomi, as well as major traditional headphone manufacturers, are also actively deploying their own brand of TWS wireless headsets to be used with their own mobile phones. It is expected that the wireless headset market will further grow. The industrial chain of
TWS mainly includes ODM manufacturers and wireless headset component manufacturers, including main control chips, memory chips, FPC, voice acceleration sensors, MEMS, overcurrent protection ICs, batteries, etc., and the involved ODM and acoustic device suppliers Including Luxshare Precision, Goertek, Gongda Electronics, Yingtong Communications, chip manufacturers include Hengxuan, Realtek, Luoda, etc.; storage manufacturers include GigaDevice (Nor Flash), Adesto; Weil Holdings, a design and distribution manufacturer of discrete devices and passive components; in addition, Sunwoda, Pengding Holdings, and some Taiwanese manufacturers such as Yaohua and Hualijie will also benefit from the growth of the TWS headset market rise.
recommends focusing on: Luxshare Precision, GigaDevice, Goertek, as well as small and medium-sized market capitalization Yingtong Communications and Gongda Electronics.
Among them, Luxshare and Goertek are AirPods assembly manufacturers. Thanks to better automated production lines, the AirPods business has become one of the company's growth drivers. Gongda Electronics and Yingtong Communications are also actively deploying TWS business and are progressing smoothly. GigaDevice, as a supplier of NOR Flash, and Vail Technology, as a designer and distributor of discrete devices and passive components, will also benefit from the rise of the wireless headset market.
Goertek and AAC occupy leading positions in the acoustic market and provide customers with overall technical solutions, and are expected to usher in new performance growth points. In addition, Pengding, Yaohua, and Huatong Suzhou Fulaiying are the main suppliers of FPC for wireless headphones, and Hualijie is the exclusive VCSEL supplier of AirPods and will also benefit from the strong growth momentum of AirPods.
It is recommended to focus on: Luxshare Precision, GigaDevice, Goertek, as well as small and medium-sized market capitalization Yingtong Communications and Gongda Electroacoustic.
. Luxshare Precision:
The initial assembly supplier of AirPods is Inventec in Taiwan, China. Goertek introduced it in 2018, and the current production capacity and yield rate are still climbing; Luxshare introduced the supply chain in 2017 and benefited from the advantages of production line automation. Expected to fully benefit from the AirPods outbreak.
Luxshare Precision achieved operating income of 9.019 billion yuan in the first quarter of 2019, a year-on-year increase of 66.90%; net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 616 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 85.04%; falling within the previous guidance range (70%~90%) The high range! The growth of
's revenue and profit in the first quarter was mainly due to the increased volume of airpods. At the same time, Luxshare guided that the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies from January to June 2019 was 1.40 to 1.57 billion, a year-on-year increase of 70% to 90%. Partly benefiting from the rising profit margins of new products such as airpods, Luxshare has relied on its strong project implementation capabilities to enable the company's performance to continue to achieve rapid growth.
company started with connectors and continues to enrich its product line. The company has introduced many new products such as LCP antennas, wireless charging, and linear motors since 2019. We judge that the company's new product yield rate has improved beyond expectations; in terms of acoustics, the company continues to expand the market share of acoustic components and vibration motors, and actively improves technology and upgrades. product yield rate, and strive to narrow the gap with industry leaders. In addition, the company will continue to benefit from the continued increase in share and volume of AirPods. The company has been cooperating with major customers for many years. Its product technology and services have been recognized by customers, and its share is expected to continue to increase in the future.
company has begun to make progress in the long-term business of communications and automobiles. The communications business has a comprehensive layout of wired, wireless and optical module businesses, and has made positive progress with several major overseas equipment customers. The 5G era is expected to bring new profit growth. In terms of optical modules, the base station side is currently dominated by 6G/10G and is expected to be gradually upgraded to 25G/100G in the future. Some of the company's filter products for 5G base stations have been shipped in small batches. In the field of new energy vehicles, the company's new product lines with domestic customers are progressing smoothly. As new energy vehicles continue to increase in volume and are gradually introduced by domestic and foreign customers, they are expected to become a new growth driver.
2. GigaDevice Innovation:
Each headset requires a 128M NOR Flash to store firmware and related codes. Each fast screen requires an 8-16M NOR for demura optical compensation, and due to the high low power consumption requirements currently The situation is good, with leading A-share manufacturers accelerating their entry into the market and their share exceeding expectations.
Airpods 1.5 generation was released, and relevant third-party organizations immediately conducted detailed dismantling. We believe that it can drive the demand for high-end 128M NOR flash in TWS headsets. At the same time, in addition to Apple, products based on MediaTek and Qualcomm CSR platforms also use it. Similar to the plan, we continue to emphasize that TWS headsets will become a bright spot in consumer electronics in 2019-2020, and will also become the X factor of high-end NOR.
's main business "storage + IoT" business bucked the trend, and its product structure and new products achieved breakthroughs in volume. As a typical high-tech growth company, GigaDevice's growth path will be from NOR in 2016 to NAND in 2017 to DRAM in 2018. The market space will be opened tenfold. The company's main business focuses on "storage + IoT" and gradually improves the "storage-processing-sensing-transmission" layout. Since 2005, new products have been launched iteratively from SRAM→NOR→MCU→NAND.
And this is exactly the essence of our emphasis on high-quality technology companies’ high-tech dividend conversion efficiency and outstanding growth. Product structure optimization and cost reduction brought about by process iterations under strong execution are the company's core competitiveness. In the fourth quarter, the company's proportion of high-end NOR Flash continued to increase, and SLC NAND further increased its volume. It is expected to continue to achieve steady growth.
Whoever gets DRAM will win the world, and demand in the three major fields drives the continued growth of DRAM. 2017 marks the beginning of the fourth silicon content increase cycle for global semiconductors. The four core innovative applications of the Internet of Things, AI, smart driving and 5G will drive exponential growth in data volume, which in turn will drive an explosion in global memory demand. The fourth silicon content increase cycle In the future, memory chips will become the main driver of the upward trend of the semiconductor integrated circuit chip industry.
The four core innovation drivers of the fourth wave of silicon content improvement cycle are AI, Internet of Things, 5G and intelligent driving. From data generated by humans to data automatically generated by connected devices, data is growing at an exponential level! Intelligent driving, intelligent security, training and inference of data samples, and the Internet of Things processing sensor data have greatly increased memory performance and storage requirements.
acquired Sili Micro to enter into AI human-computer interaction and create an integrated "MCU-storage-interaction" solution.Silimicro is a leading supplier of intelligent human-computer interaction solutions in the domestic market. Its products mainly include next-generation smart mobile terminal sensor SoC chips such as touch chips and fingerprint chips.
This acquisition will help GigaDevice enrich its chip product line, expand customer and supplier channels, and form a complete system solution as a whole. Shanghai Silimicro will complement GigaDevice’s R&D technologies in sensors, signal processing, algorithms and human-computer interaction to a certain extent, and enhance its productization capabilities in related technical fields.
. Goertek:
is a leading domestic manufacturer of acoustic devices and MEMS. Acoustic devices are constantly upgraded, with innovations such as stereo, waterproof, and intelligent added. The company has advanced acoustic device design and production capabilities and leads the market share among major customers. At the same time, the company continues to strengthen its layout in the field of microelectronics, with MEMS microphones and MEMS motion sensors occupying the leading position. With its leading position in the market and increased investment in semiconductor chip R&D, packaging and testing, and SIP, it is expected to maintain sustained growth in the future.
With the rise of wireless Bluetooth headsets, Goertek has taken the lead in the design, assembly and core acoustic components of TWS headsets. It has an absolute leading position in the market and provides customers with overall technical solutions. It is expected to usher in new performance growth points.
company is actively developing AR\VR market. According to the latest data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, the scale of the global virtual reality industry is close to 100 billion yuan, and the average annual compound growth rate from 2017 to 2022 is expected to exceed 70%.
In terms of overall scale, according to Greenlight's forecast, the global AR\VR market will exceed 70 billion yuan in 2018, a year-on-year increase of 126%. The global virtual reality industry is expected to exceed 200 billion yuan in 2020. Goertek is fully deploying the virtual reality industry chain and actively invest in R&D and production, which is expected to bring new growth momentum.
, Yingtong Communication:
is a leading player in the electroacoustic component industry. Yingtong Communications is a leading domestic advanced manufacturing enterprise specializing in the R&D, production and sales of acoustic products, data lines and other products. The company focuses on the R&D, production and sales of various electroacoustic products, data cables and other products represented by micro-communication wires for headphones.
According to the 2018 Express Report, the company's revenue was 902 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 25.01%. The substantial growth in revenue was mainly due to the continued increase in sales of acoustic products. The net profit attributable to the parent company in 2018 was 65.29%, a year-on-year decrease of 23.9%. The profit decline was mainly due to the increase in raw material costs and the early costs incurred by the establishment of the company's new business unit. As demand for downstream wireless headphones increases, revenue and profits are expected to grow significantly in 2019.
TWS provides new power for acoustic products for headphones. As the appearance and functions of smartphones continue to evolve, accessories are constantly upgraded, and users' demand for lightweight headphones has led to the emergence of wireless headphones. According to GFK data, wireless headset shipments in 2016 were only 9.18 million units, with a market size of less than 2 billion yuan.
GFK predicts that wireless headset shipments will increase by 41% year-on-year in 2018, and the market size will reach US$5.4 billion. By 2020, the market size of TWS wireless headsets will reach US$11 billion.
predicts that as the sound quality and functionality of wireless headphones continue to improve, the penetration rate of wireless headphones is expected to continue to increase in the future. As the wireless headset market continues to expand, the market for acoustic products for headphones will also rise.
is actively expanding production to reserve production capacity for demand. As the shipment volume of terminal products continues to rise and is expected to continue to rise in the future, the company's current production capacity is difficult to meet future market demand. On the other hand, the electroacoustic component industry mainly adopts a business model based on sales to determine production. In order to cope with the occasional incidents of core customers In order to deliver large orders in a timely manner, the company needs to retain a certain degree of production capacity flexibility, which also makes production capacity expansion a necessary requirement. Therefore, the company conducted an IPO in 2017 to raise funds for production capacity expansion projects.
Through the implementation of fundraising projects, the company's products cover the scope of the industrial chain and gradually extend the products from the upstream to the downstream of the production chain, which helps to enhance the company's status and visibility in the industrial chain and shorten the radius of cooperation with core customers. It is believed that the company's continuous expansion of production capacity while adhering to R&D and lean management will enable the company to achieve better economies of scale.
, Gongda Electric Sound:
turned a loss into a profit in the first quarter of 2019.The company is a professional manufacturer and service provider of electroacoustic components and electroacoustic components, and a provider of electroacoustic technology solutions. Its main business is the research and development, production and sales of micro electroacoustic components and electroacoustic components. Its main products include micro Microphones, vehicle microphones, micro speakers/receivers and their array modules are widely used in mobile communication equipment and peripheral products, notebook computers, flat-panel TVs, personal digital products, automotive electronics and other consumer electronics fields.
achieved operating income of 805 million yuan in 2018, a year-on-year increase of 2.27%; net profit attributable to the parent company was 21 million yuan. At the same time, the company released first-quarter performance guidance, which is expected to achieve a net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies of 0-3 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 100%-120.69%, and achieve a turnaround from losses to profits.
acquires Wanmo Acoustics and vertically integrates the industry chain. Wanmo Acoustics is an enterprise mainly engaged in the R&D, design, manufacturing and sales of headphones, speakers, smart acoustic products and key acoustic components. In addition to Xiaomi, Wanmo has also successfully developed ODM business customers Huawei, Amazon, and iQi. Well-known customers such as Yiyi, ASUS, Kuwo, Gudong, NetEase, JD.com, , Tencent , etc.
Gongda Electronic Acoustics plans to acquire 100% equity of Wanmo Acoustics by issuing shares to all shareholders of Wanmo Acoustics. Gongda and Wanmo Acoustics are at the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain. After the two parties merge, they will truly achieve synergy in business. Wanmo Acoustics expects net profits from 2019 to 2021 to be 150 million yuan, 220 million yuan and 280 million yuan respectively.
Risk reminder
Downstream demand is less than expected:
Due to the impact of the external environment, if the growth rate of the downstream market is less than expected, the operating performance of the supply chain company will be adversely affected.
Intensified competition in the industry:
With the continuous expansion of various parts and components markets, industry competition will become more intense.
Exchange rate risk: Foreign exchange risk arising from financial assets and financial liabilities denominated in foreign currencies may have an adverse impact on the company's operating results.
The impact of the international situation:
The impact of the international situation has led to negative sentiment in the market.
