Apple announced last night that it will hold an autumn conference with the theme “The time is here” at 1:00 am Beijing time next Wednesday (16th). Although the iPhone 12 series may not be unveiled by then, there will still be Apple Watch Series 6 , New iPad and other products are worth looking forward to.
In fact, since the past few years, Apple has been used to launching new iPhones and new Apple Watches at autumn conferences. However, due to the low attention of the latter, no matter in the early stage of the news, or the topic fermentation after the release, it is not as hot as the new iPhone. However, as Apple increasingly shifts its focus to wearable devices, Apple Watch and AirPods no longer exist solely as “iPhone accessories”. The stronger independence also makes them gradually attract more new and old users. Attention.
So about the upcoming Apple Watch Series 6, what aspects are worth looking forward to?
After experiencing the ECG electrocardiogram and fall detection of Apple Watch Series 4, and the global emergency call for Apple Watch Series 5. Apple Watch Series 6 will undoubtedly continue to “enhance horsepower” in terms of health monitoring.
Perhaps the most important one is the “blood oxygen monitoring” function.
In the medical field, heart rate, breathing rate, blood oxygen, blood pressure, and body temperature are regarded as the five most important health indicators to measure a person’s health .
At present, the heart rate sensor of Apple Watch has been able to measure the wearer’s heart rate more accurately, and Apple Watch Series 4/5 can even monitor the wearer’s electrical signal of the heart under the support of the electrode type heart rate sensor. When uploading, the reading speed of the heart rate is faster, and the ECG can be generated in the “ECG” App (not currently supported in China).
Regarding the breathing rate, Apple Watch also has a built-in “breathing” app to remind the wearer to take a deep breath at the right time and to help the wearer adjust the breathing rate.
The importance of blood oxygen saturation (hereinafter referred to as blood oxygen) as one of the five main health indicators is self-evident. This health index is mainly used to measure the oxygen content of red blood cells. Normal and healthy pulse oximetry values are usually between 90% and up to 100%. If the value is lower than 90%, it is considered low. It should be treated by a medical professional. The person performs a medical evaluation.
Because of low blood oxygen saturation is an important feature of pneumonia (including general pneumonia and viral pneumonia) different from the common cold. Therefore, after the epidemic of new type of coronary pneumonia, blood oxygen saturation testing has once become a public concern.
The traditional blood oxygen saturation measurement method not only requires blood sampling first, but also uses a special blood gas analyzer to perform electrochemical analysis. The measurement difficulty and threshold are relatively high. But at present, the common way to measure blood oxygen saturation on the market is mainly to use an optical sensor, and the specific monitoring method is very close to the optical heart rate sensor carried by the Apple Watch.
So when the original Apple Watch was launched, the dismantling agency iFixit found that this optical heart rate sensor actually had the ability to monitor blood oxygen, but Apple may have not really enabled this due to concerns about data accuracy or regulatory agencies. Features.
However, in the iOS 14 code, the developer has found the code related to the blood oxygen monitoring function, and also supports the “blood oxygen notification” function the same as the heart rate notification. For example, when the Apple Watch detects the wearer’s blood oxygen saturation When the degree is lower than a certain threshold, a notification reminder will be issued in time.
As more and more sensors are added to Apple Watch, the monitoring and reminding of various health data will be more accurate, and it can even be boldly guessed that Apple may introduce a third-generation optical heart rate sensor for Apple Watch Series 6 to achieve better results. Oxygen monitoring function.
In addition, Apple Watch Series 6 may also be equipped with a slightly larger battery. The capacity of the previous generation’s 296mAh (18-hour battery life) is slightly increased to 303mAh. This level of improvement should hardly have a significant impact on battery life, and more importantly It still depends on the processor’s power consumption control.
Last year’s “Always On Display” function became the battery killer of Apple Watch Series 5. If Apple plans to keep this feature on Apple Watch Series 6 this year, but it is difficult to improve power consumption, “Always On Display” Perhaps it will be the first feature that many users turn off.
According to the law of previous years, this year’s Apple Watch Series 6 is likely to be equipped with a new S6 processor and W4 wireless chip , and the operating speed is expected to be further improved.
As for the possible appearance changes of Apple Watch Series 6, I personally don’t have much expectations. On the one hand, the full-screen model determined by the Apple Watch Series 4 of the previous year is basically the “ultimate form” of the square Apple Watch. The subsequent changes are nothing more than the reduction of the frame, the change of the middle frame and other minor adjustments, which are most likely to appear on the Apple Watch. The appearance change on Series 6 may be a narrower frame.
In addition to Apple Watch Series 6, Apple may also launch a slightly lower-positioned Apple Watch to seize the mid-range market. Bloomberg believes that this model will become the successor to Apple Watch Series 3, and will be used with Fitbit and other low-end smart watches. / Bracelet products compete.
According to a report released by research firm Canalys in June, in the first quarter of this year, global smartwatch shipments increased by 12% year-on-year, of which Apple Watch ranked first with 2.5 million shipments and 36% market share. But from a year-on-year perspective, Apple’s advantages are gradually shrinking. Apple Watch shipments fell by 13% year-on-year in the first quarter of this year. Correspondingly, Huawei’s shipment growth rate reached 113%, and Samsung’s growth rate reached 46%. The market share of Apple Watch is being eroded by Huawei and Samsung.
From the data of third-party e-commerce platforms, Huawei (including Honor) and Samsung’s hot-selling smartwatch models are mostly sold in the range of 1,000 yuan to 2,000 yuan. In contrast, most of the new Apple Watches each year cost more than 3,000 yuan. .
Therefore, when Apple launched Apple Watch Series 5 last year, it was the right choice to remove Apple Watch Series 4 and keep Apple Watch Series 3. Not only could it make way for new products, but it would also not lose the mid- to low-end market. The right to speak, after all, Apple Watch Series 3 still has a certain market competitiveness at a price of less than 1,500 yuan.
But it may not be realistic for Apple to keep Apple Watch Series 3, because the S3 processor on this device is a product of three years ago, and the running speed under the new system may be greatly reduced.
So I think Apple may launch a model that uses Apple Watch Series 3 design, but the processor is upgraded to S5 or even S6 to meet the needs of the low-end market, because the iPhone SE2 adopts this strategy. After a “core”, coupled with reasonable pricing, it will eventually become the sweet pastry of the market.
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