Recently, OPPO released the OPPO Watch smart watch, announcing its entry into the smart wearable industry.

As OPPO's first attempt on a smart watch, OPPO Watch offers a variety of different models to choose from, including 46mm, 41mm and stainless steel versions. Its dial adopts a rectangular design, a 3D ceramic bottom case, and an integrated metal middle frame, especially the hyperbolic design of the dial, which has become the most eye-catching product highlight.

As a concrete manifestation of the "electronic +" trend, wearable devices have gradually completed market cultivation in recent years, and terminal brands such as Apple, Xiaomi, and Huawei have continued to launch corresponding products. The burgeoning smart wearable market has also brought considerable development opportunities to the MIM (metal powder injection molding) process.

▽ In the field of smart wear, MIM is full of presence

Smart wear is a wearable portable computing device. In order to allow users to wear it comfortably all day, the design of smart wear must overcome the sensation of foreign bodies-small size, light weight, and ergonomic shell. This means that smart wearable parts have the characteristics of small, three-dimensional complex shapes and special performance requirements.

Therefore, the MIM process is highly sought after in the field of smart wear where "the body must be light and compact, and the quality must be able to bear". At present, the MIM process is mainly used in the manufacturing of smart watch cases and bracelets.

For parts with complex structures, the MIM process has great advantages-near net shape, almost no waste, complex parts can be mass-produced at low cost only by developing corresponding molds according to the product.

▽ Smart wearables are about to usher in a market breakthrough of 100 billion yuan

In the past few years, the global smart wearable market has grown slowly. But in 2019, the smart wearable device market began to return to the industry's attention.

According to a research report released by the market research organization IDC: In the third quarter of 2019, global smart wearable device shipments were 84.5 million units, an increase of 94.6% year-on-year, setting a new record for single-quarter shipments. Moreover, among the stocks in the sector since the Spring Festival in 2020, the smart wearable sector has continued to rise by about 2%-3%.

In addition to signs of "rejuvenation" in the market, smart wearable devices will also have two great gods running in the future-AI and 5G.

According to a report by Markets and Markets, the world’s second largest market research organization, the global smart wearable AI market will reach 42.4 billion U.S. dollars (295.6 billion yuan) in 2023. Smart wearable devices supported by AI algorithms may become the main force. "market. On the other hand, with the continuous maturity of the mobile Internet and the advent of the 5G era, as the next hotspot of smart terminals, the application of smart wearable devices will be broader in the future.

The characteristics of the MIM process are in line with the development trend of consumer electronics precision and high-end. It is foreseeable that the penetration rate and market size of MIM technology in the smart wearable field will also show an increasing trend in the future.