5 problems and all serious. Why don’t they produce real electronic smartwatches in Russia?

Import substitution has become one of the key ideas for the development of the country’s industry. One can argue for a long time whether this is good or bad, but the reality for the chosen ones is precisely this path. And it is difficult to deny the successes of the regime.

Yes, we are not America, and not China, but we are not Third world country. There are talented personnel and a certain scientific and technical base. Russia has created its own processor microarchitecture, produces network equipment, and domestic tablets and phones are represented on the consumer electronics market. Yes, there are few of them, they have their own characteristics, but still.

Yandex.Phone is another attempt to enter the market with a domestic product

What about smart watches or fitness bracelets made in Russia? After all, some large brands have left our market, including the Garmin and Endomondo services, which could not withstand competition with applications on iOS and Android. Given the promotion and popularity of a healthy lifestyle (thanks, the state!), the need for fitness bracelets and Diptych services is clearly growing.

Short description

• Problem with access to production and technology
  High R&D costs
  Competition and problems with mass production
  Ecosystem and software support
  Materials and logistics
  Regulation and Certification
  Domestic phones and tablets are not an example?

Create a cool one Russia popular product for Russians – the goal seems logical and achievable. And this benefit, moreover, is not at all disinterested, is the beginning of calculating funds for state support in the form of grants and subsidies.

Sales of portable electronics in millions of units – growth does not stop

Favorable conditions have returned, but what are we seeing in the market? On Ozone, in the proud section “Russian-Made Watches,” more than two thousand models are presented. But the description reveals them right through Chinese essence. Although it would seem that it is difficult to create a watch, it is still not a car, not a TV or a tablet. There are probably reasons for this.

There are several reasons, and below we will learn about each one separately. If you have your own thoughts on this matter, please leave them in the comments. So, why are there no domestic smartwatches and fitness bracelets in Russia:

1. Problem with access to production and technology

Modern smart watches are multifunctional solar harvesters, for which the time display function is not even important. And this computer on the hand requires the appropriate filling. Unfortunately, microelectronics is not developed enough in Russia to produce the required energy-efficient chips. So talking about full-cycle production is too optimistic.

There is an option to purchase the necessary components and install a “screwdriver” assembly. But access to imported electronics, if there is one, is limited to the furnishings, and in any case it will not be cheap. And the infrastructure for assembly also requires equipment and personnel. And this is also money.

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2. High R&D costs

Creating such a device from scratch requires investment in development. The product production cycle is quite long, it requires research before work begins. In addition to creating a hardware platform, you will need to write software for it and test it all. Here you need not only money, but also time.

This is what one of Huawei’s first R&D centers looks like, Suzhou

Large manufacturers are actively working to improve the accuracy of indicators taken by sensors. In addition, there are more than 20 Huawei research centers. In addition, athletes are also tested there in order to correlate the real indicators taken with the indicators of portable electronics.

The domestic manufacturer will follow this path, otherwise the product will be crude and inaccurate. And who needs a tracker that gives out random indicators?

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3. Competition and problems with mass production.

Mass production can reduce the cost of a product. However, is it easy for a domestic product, initially, let’s be honest, inferior in characteristics to top-end devices, and in cost to faceless “Chinese” ones, to find its niche? Patriotism is good, but how many sales does it generate?

The market for smart watches and fitness bracelets has already recovered. The dominant companies there (Apple, Samsung, Huawei) have been engaging customers for many years, accustoming them to their products and their features. The best brands have behind them not only solid marketing budgets, but also well-established years of production and connections with suppliers and retail chains.

Displacing the leaders is not an easy task, and the “Other” segment is not crowded

To enter this market, a Russian company needs to understand what can be offered to the consumer in conditions of fierce competition? What is the main intriguing idea in Russian watches?

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4. Ecosystem and software support

The success of the Apple Watch is largely based on operational interaction with the iPhone; in general, watches want to be considered as elements of an ecosystem so that they interact with other devices and applications. And if companies are already introducing such entrepreneurs or interacting with ready-made solutions, this will lead to the fact that pandemic producers will have to build everything from scratch, which will be even more difficult under restrictions.

Yes, and the application clock is needed. The development team, even if it is created, will take time. And the consequences work, in fact, in autonomous mode, creating anew everything that competitors have had for a long time.

There should be many applications, different and updated.

Using a custom operating system within an hour of Google’s Wear OS could solve the problem. This immediately gave us a variety of ready-made applications and excellent compatibility with Android devices. But now Google will cooperate with reliable manufacturers. You shouldn’t expect Samsung and Huawei to share their operating systems (Tizen and Harmony OS) – who needs to raise a competitor with their own hands?

If we do this along the path of creating no-name Chinese using a proprietary system and this process, then the question of development and support will soon arise – who will write applications and develop the project? Place an order for a batch of watches in China, providing them with a Russified shell, they have been transferred. But what next? And is this really a Russian watch?

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5. Materials and logistics

To produce high-quality elements of a smart device, special materials and technologies are needed. They are either expensive or not available to us at all.

Importing components is also not so simple. All hope is in China, but doing business with it is not such a simple story. Now no one can ensure the stability of payments and settlements.

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6. Regulation and certification

If the product is planned to be introduced and offered in other countries, this will require additional certification and testing costs. In Russia it will be difficult to provide the necessary documents.

Yes, and the use of smartwatches in the native Russian market requires certification, but this has just been decided.

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7. Domestic phones and tablets – isn’t this an example?

Experience with the development of domestic smartphones and tablets once again shows how thorny this path is. It was possible to create an original solution (YotaPhone), use Chinese models with Android based on domestic software chips (Taigaphone), and work on our own Aurora OS. Even Yandex took part in the race with its Yandex.Phone.

There is a mobile operating system! But not for hours…

But all these projects either revealed their economic insolvency over time, or were initially created for specific tasks of the state or corporations. With watches it is much more difficult; nevertheless, these devices are not as functional as smartphones or tablets, so the state and business do not need them in such volumes.

In fact, there is no need to get discouraged. You just need to dive deeper into the wilds of Google and find several individual domestic projects. So, in 2021, the Sitronics company from Zelenograd presented its smart watches for the work team. This gadget was aimed at nearby users and was clearly not widespread. The device costs 10 thousand rubles and was manufactured in Zelenograd, supports 4G and 5G and runs on a proprietary OS.

Russian watches? It’s not all bad

And at the very beginning of this year, the domestic IT holding Lanit bought the domestic assets of the foreign company Elari. They changed their registration, interestingly, the development team and intellectual property rights. But Elari is its key product – children’s smart watches.

So, domestic smartwatches may soon appear – the necessary basis for this, it seems, already exists. The company plans to release products for all ages, including devices with activity monitoring. Children’s watches should get cooperation with famous cartoons.

This is how you can look in short children’s Russian smart watches.

Our country has modern and human resources to solve this problem. However, to solve it, it is necessary to overcome many obstacles: economic and technological, as well as financial. It’s not for nothing that they say: “Measure twice, cut once.” Probably, by the third or fourth measurement it already becomes clear that there is no point in cutting. And we can only wish good luck to rare enthusiasts – we will watch with interest (sincerely!) what they come up with.