'2020 Wrist War' Has Begun... Xiaomi Mi Band 5 Starts the Race at 189 Yuan

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Jo] The "wrist war" surrounding the global smartwatch market, valued at about 30 trillion won, is set to unfold once again. Starting with the launch of Xiaomi's Mi Band 5 equipped with artificial intelligence (AI), Samsung Electronics, Apple, and others are also releasing next-generation smartwatches with significantly enhanced healthcare functions. It is expected that the era of the so-called "wrist doctor" will open through high-spec smartwatches capable of electrocardiogram measurement and more.

According to industry sources on the 12th, Xiaomi officially launched the next-generation smartwatch Mi Band 5 in China yesterday. The exterior design is almost the same as the previous Mi Band 4, but to expand usability, it is equipped with a larger 1.1-inch AMOLED display compared to the previous 0.95-inch. It supports functions such as heart rate monitoring and breathing training through a total of 11 sports modes including yoga and indoor cycling. Through AI voice recognition service, it can also control AI Internet of Things (AIoT) devices at home.

The previous Mi Band 4, which was priced at about one-third of competing products, was so popular that 10,000 units were sold within 4 hours of its release in Korea. This is why expectations for the Mi Band 5 are also high domestically. The Mi Band 5 will start selling in China from the 18th and is expected to be released in Korea soon. The price is 189 yuan for the standard version and 229 yuan for the NFC version, which is about 30,000 won.

Samsung Electronics is also expected to unveil a new smartwatch, tentatively called Galaxy Watch 3, ahead of the Galaxy Unpacked event scheduled for August. IT specialist media SamMobile reported, "Samsung Electronics may unveil the Galaxy Watch 3 in July before the Galaxy Unpacked event and release it in August." The Galaxy Watch 3 is expected to feature blood pressure and electrocardiogram measurement functions. To this end, Samsung Electronics has already obtained approval for related apps from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

Samsung Health Monitor App

Apple, which leads the global smartwatch market, will also introduce the Apple Watch 6 (tentative name) in the second half of the year. Major foreign media have reported that the Apple Watch 6 will be equipped with a microLED display, which consumes less power than OLED. Healthcare functions such as blood sugar measurement, oxygen saturation and pulse measurement, and sleep tracking are also expected to be significantly enhanced. In this regard, Apple recently obtained GMP certification, a conformity assessment for medical device manufacturers and importers.

In addition, Chinese company Huawei is also expected to unveil a new smartwatch around the time of the Mate 40 smartphone launch in the second half of the year.

Just a few years ago, smartwatches were considered merely as devices attached to smartphones, but recently, with the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), their status has changed to that of a "wrist doctor." They are praised for being easy to collect biometric signals and for their easy synchronization with smartphones.

Market research firm Gartner forecasts the smartwatch market size this year to be $22.8 billion (about 27.5 trillion won). According to Strategy Analytics (SA), the shipment volume of smartwatches in the first quarter was about 13.7 million units, an increase of about 20% compared to the previous year. SA stated, "Despite the impact of COVID-19, demand for smartwatches continues to grow."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.