According to the latest data from Konas, in the second quarter of 200212002, the global TWS headset shipments totaled 58.3 million units, with the growth rate dropping to 6.4%, the lowest in three years. Even AirPods, the founder of TWS, fell for the first time in the second quarter of 20021. Apple's 202 1q 2 TWS headset shipments were150,000 units, down 25.7% year-on-year.
However, from the perspective of the whole market, according to IDC data, the global penetration rate of TWS wireless headphones has increased from 0.62% in 20 16 years to 18.2%, which is still at a low level. From the perspective of sub-brands, the AirPods penetration rate of Apple mobile phones has exceeded 50%, while the TWS headset penetration rate of Android mobile phones is less than 20%, and there is still huge room for growth.
In order to further explore the real situation of the current TWS headset market, electronic enthusiasts visited Philip Burkart Semiconductor, the leader of domestic TWS power management ic, and had the honor to have an in-depth discussion and exchange with marketing director Huang Lin on the TWS headset market.
Huang Lin said that Philip Burkart Semiconductor entered the TWS market very early. At present, with the increasing demand of customers, products are also increasing, including not only TWS charging bin power management SoC chip, but also earphone fast charging chip, port protection device and wireless charging chip. At the same time, due to the complete product range and rich experience in scheme design, it has won the trust of many well-known brands.
This year, the performance and shipments of Philip Burkart Semiconductor have increased significantly. In terms of shipments, Huang Lin revealed that compared with last year, the growth rate was about 50%.
On the one hand, the sharp increase in performance was due to the impact of the epidemic last year, and the demand was suppressed, but this year the demand was released. On the other hand, in the past few years, the market has been flooded with a large number of white TWS earphone products, which has also brought certain user experience and consumption habits to consumers. With the further decline in the price of brand products, more users are willing to accept this product form and further expand the market volume.
Interestingly, although TWS headphones have been developed for five years, Huang Lin thinks that the power management of TWS has not developed to a relatively mature stage until this year.
A few years ago, many customers thought that the power management of TWS headphones was similar to that of charging treasure, but it was quite different. For example, many early headphones were put into the charging box, but they were still in the working state of reconnecting, but consumers didn't know this situation, which led to many headphones being found dead when they were taken out for use. In addition, for example, the standby power consumption is too high when the product is stored, the detection of headphones entering and leaving the charging box is unstable, and the data interaction requirements between headphones and charging box are constantly optimized.
In recent two years, with the rapid development of ANC active noise reduction products in TWS, as well as the low yield of ANC products in the production and assembly process and the difficulty of index testing, upstream manufacturers and solution providers are forced to transmit some test information index data in headphones to the charging box point through headset POGO PIN, which further puts forward higher requirements for high-speed data interaction between charging box and headphones. Therefore, the demand and implementation of TWS headset power management technology will gradually mature this year.
In addition to the breakthrough of active noise reduction technology, the new technology application of TWS headphones can also see the addition of new technology functions such as simultaneous interpretation and health detection. The addition of more functions may also bring some new demands and challenges to power management, such as faster charging speed, higher conversion efficiency and miniaturization of chips.
Huang Lin said that in the next few years, product prices will continue to decline, which is an inevitable process for consumer electronic products to mature. Therefore, it can also be seen that in recent years, terminal brand manufacturers and intermediate assembly plants will go through the process of shuffling. By next year, many mature standardized chip products may be put into the market in large quantities, and this trend has been seen at present. Philip Burkart will also launch a series of products with better performance and simpler solutions according to market demand.
In addition, in order to realize the more extreme user experience needs of brand customers, such as "charging for n minutes and battery life for m hours" created by some brands, Philip Burkart is also cooperating with these customers to carry out new technological breakthroughs and product research and development.
Technically, Huang Lin thinks that in the field of consumer electronics, there is not a big gap between chip or circuit design and international head manufacturers. There may be some technical differences in the past, but after more than ten years of development, with the improvement of market environment, technological innovation and personnel training, the technical gap is not obvious. The main gap lies in the mass production experience of products and how to achieve long-term and reliable product delivery.
From the market point of view, with the continuous decline of product prices, as mentioned above, the growth rate of TWS headphones has begun to slow down, and the whole market will obviously enter a mature reshuffle stage, which is a huge test for players in the industry.
But for Philip Burkart, the impact is not great. Philip Burkart has a wide range of customers, reaching hundreds. And in terms of market development and customer service, it is multifaceted, always following the first line to quickly respond to changes in market demand, and at the same time, it will carry out technical cooperation and exchanges with many main control chip manufacturers, so it is confident to continue in the market.
This year, the overall shortage and price increase of the semiconductor market has been going on. However, for Philip Burkart Semiconductor, the impact seems to be not so great. Huang Lin explained that since the establishment of Philip Burkart 10 years ago, the cooperative suppliers have basically not changed much.
Long-term cooperation has also established a deep trust relationship between Philip Burkart and suppliers, especially in the case of price increase and shortage, the supply of products will be more secure.
When asked how Philip Burkart Semiconductor stood out in the domestic TWS headset power management field, Huang Lin said that this was due to Siyuan's early entry into the industry and long-term focus on this field. At the same time, Philip Burkart is not satisfied with its past achievements, and has been making progress with customers in product form change and technological innovation.
In view of the TWS headset market, Philip Burkart believes that it has not fully developed to a stable stage, and there will be a process of rapid development in a few years, hoping to take a ride in the industry and let the company grow and develop. In addition to TWS headphones, wearable devices are also the focus of future development, and headphones will also be a good entry point for wearable devices. The future smart wear market will become an important tool for people's daily interaction and life.