BYJAMES MORALES

EDITED BY SAMANTHA DUNN

ByteDance has entered the AI wearables space. Credit: Pexels.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• ByteDance Launches AI-Integrated Earbuds
• Smart Wearables Beyond Watches
• Can ByteDance Compete With Apple and Samsung?

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• ByteDance has released a pair of smart earbuds that can be used to interact with its Doubao AI assistant.
• “Ola Friend” represents a new strategy for the company, which has only recently branched out into the hardware space.
• However, the Chinese company’s foray into smart wearables brings it into competition with Apple and Samsung.

TikTok owner ByteDance has launched “Ola Friend”—a pair of smart earbuds designed to integrate with its AI assistant Doubao.

The new product represents a new strategy for the company that has traditionally focused on software and applications rather than devices. But as it enters a new market, the Chinese company is up against some of the largest technology companies in the world with decades of experience in hardware manufacturing.

ByteDance Launches AI-Integrated Earbuds

Priced at $170, the Ola Friend earbuds are currently available only in China, reflecting the Chinese language focus of ByteDance’s Doubao platform.

While they still require a smartphone to operate, the earbuds enable hands-free interactions with the AI assistant, which can be activated by saying “Doubao, Doubao.”

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Mostly known as a software developer, since acquiring Oladance and VR headset maker Pico, ByteDance has secured key footholds in the hardware space to support its venture into devices.

The release of Ola Friend follows ByteDance’s acquisition of Oladance earlier this year.

Smart Wearables Beyond Watches

While smartwatches have dominated the wearables market for years, the category is expanding to include a wide array of new devices, including earbuds and rings.

Earlier this year, Samsung introduced the Galaxy Ring, a health-tracking device that monitors sleep and fitness metrics. Rumors suggest Apple is also considering developing its own smart ring.

The growing popularity of wearables like rings and earbuds indicates that consumers are looking for smaller, more versatile devices that can fit seamlessly into daily life.

These wearables still rely on auxiliary technology housed within smartphones. But they provide additional interfaces that extend the universe of personal devices in new directions.

Can ByteDance Compete With Apple and Samsung?

For a company whose products have traditionally been designed to run on top of hardware platforms built by companies like Apple and Samsung, ByteDance’s foray into AI wearables brings it into direct competition with those very same tech giants.

While both Apple and Samsung benefit from generally loyal customer bases, with consumers often upgrading to newer models of the same device repeatedly, the Chinese market has proven more dynamic than many others.

Chinese consumers’ embrace of a diverse group of domestic and international manufacturers plays into ByteDance’s hands.

Where Samsung and Apple started with smartphones and built their respective wearables ranges to work best within connected ecosystems of devices from the same manufacturer, ByteDance’s approach is smartphone-agnostic by design.

As the company embarks on a new era as a device maker, this strategy lends itself to the diverse Chinese smartphone market. However, in the context of tribal American or South Korean users, it may prove more difficult to change longstanding purchasing habits.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James Morales

Although his background is in crypto and FinTech news, these days, James likes to roam across CCN’s editorial breadth, focusing mostly on digital technology. Having always been fascinated by the latest innovations, he uses his platform as a journalist to explore how new technologies work, why they matter and how they might shape our future.