Decoding India’s wearable market slowdown, and assessing Sennheiser’s Accentum Open

Amit Khatri, Co- founding father of Noise, summarises the state of affairs. “The smartwatch market is at the moment present process a recalibration section with an increase in high quality aware shoppers. Prior to now few years, the class explored unprecedented value factors, which spurred a surge in demand. Now, shoppers are more and more gravitating in direction of manufacturers that provide constant worth,” he says. Khatri factors to the truth that for 4 years, Noise led the wearables class in India (they’re significantly robust with smartwatch market share) because the trade advanced, and key to these have been innovation, high quality, and belief. “Belief is constructed by means of consistency and we’ve established it with each product, witnessing extra dedicated consumers who’re upgrading for efficiency and options,” he provides.

The place does the wearables market go from right here? For starters, a smartphone-like overexposure in entry-level wearables seems to have dulled client enthusiasm. Be it Noise, Boult, Boat or every other model on this house, the product traces are bloated with quite a lot of similar-esque merchandise at related costs. The tip result’s, both a buyer makes a choose and hopes for the very best, or provides up looking for a wearable that matches greatest.

At this level, wearable diversification might be key. Health monitoring rings and AI sun shades may very well be the way in which ahead, exploring new product traces and uncharted territories. However even for the standard smartwatch or true wi-fi earbuds, one thing’s received to take a step up. Waiting for the festive second half, manufacturers are anticipated to pivot in direction of mid-premium choices, specializing in superior well being sensors, NFC assist, AI-driven options for predictive well being insights, and seamless integration with units and ecosystems,” says Anand Priya Singh, market analyst, Good Wearable Gadgets, at IDC India, speaking about smartwatches and health trackers. For earwear merchandise, an AI infusion might be vital, which may very well be used to construct stay translation performance, for example.

TECH SPOTLIGHT: SENNHEISER ACCENTUM OPEN

This might be an indication of the way in which issues are. The Sennheiser Accentum Open is priced at ₹9,990 and there are two issues to give attention to. First, these are the corporate’s second true wi-fi earphones to go on sale in India beneath the ₹10,000 value level, and that too in fast time (the opposite being the Sport true wi-fi for ₹8,990). Secondly, gone is that pedestal of premium-only product positioning, one thing Sennheiser held on to with satisfaction over time. Flexibility with strategy is at all times an excellent factor, equally relevant for tech corporations and people.

The Sennheiser Accentum Open earbuds are as distinct as they’re now, with design and subsequently enchantment in contrast with a lot of earbuds on sale at this time limit. These aren’t precisely in-ear buds, within the sense that there aren’t any seal-fit silicone ideas. Keep in mind the open-ear design from earphones that have been on sale a number of years in the past, and even to an extent, the Apple AirPods 4 (these will value ₹12,900)? The Sennheiser Accentum Open additionally sits within the ear, quite than lodging itself tightly within the ear canal. There are benefits of consolation of use and for individuals who wrestle with ear strain on tighter match earphones. However in fact, this design means there isn’t a noise cancellation, which can restrict utility open air or whereas travelling. There’s additionally the matter of match, which is fully reliant on the bodily contours of your ears — some will discover it sit completely, some received’t. That’s nature at play.

Efficiency is greatest categorised as two sides to the identical coin. The sound signature is reassuringly Sennheiser, which suggests impartial out of the field and versatile sufficient for various genres of music. It may be fairly versatile with drumming up the decrease frequencies when the playlists demand as such, while additionally dealing with greater frequencies fairly nicely. There isn’t a overlap, no overshadowing of the vocals or the mids, but there are occasions when the decrease frequencies might sound a smidgen sculpted. However that may nicely be attributed to the very nature of audio tuning today, the place aggressive inputs are fairly widespread, to make an earphone sound higher. I’ll say that collectively, it’s nonetheless an excellent basis to construct with.

A cause for that’s, the shortage of any companion app for the Accentum Open earbuds. This might be a giant miss for customers who’d prefer to fine-tune the sound to their liking. At that time, the consolation of carrying this for lengthy hours, and I say this as somebody who has pretty delicate ears, does greater than make up for any lacking items. Not less than for my ear contours, this sits nicely and there aren’t any hints the buds will fall out while strolling. Jogging, I’m not fully certain. However the open nature of this match means the ears don’t really feel the type of strain noise cancellation or a tighter match brings. All in all, a return to the previous might nicely work within the Accentum Open’s favour. Much more so, due to the value.

SENSE OF (PERPETUAL) INJUSTICE

Elon Musk’s sense of figuring out historic grievances with nearly anybody, is comparatively unmatched, albeit there are a number of who might give him intense competitors within the battle to understand our collective historical past. Anyway, I digress unintentionally in direction of geopolitics. Again to the purpose which is, Musk believes that Apple appears to favour OpenAI at his expense, and that he’s higher than Sam Altman. These two illustrations of obvious injustice have been working in parallel. I’ll decode them for you, in probably the most concise method doable.

• First, Musk alleged that Apple refuses to place his X app within the “Will need to have” part on the App Retailer, when he himself believes X is the primary information app on the earth and that Grok is equally well-liked. Apple responded that their app lists are curated with goal standards and are “designed to be honest and freed from bias”. Thoughts you, Musk’s apps nonetheless seem on numerous curation lists on the App Retailer, now and again.
• Reposting (I nearly wrote “retweet”) Elon’s submit, Sam Altman identified that he’s heard Elon manipulates X to learn himself and his personal corporations and hurt opponents and folks he doesn’t like. Somebody invoked Grok within the replies to confirm this, and the AI assistant truly mentioned “Primarily based on verified proof, Sam Altman is correct”. No surprise Elon wasn’t greatest happy — certain Grok was made to sit down on the naughty step too.
• OpenAI’s GPT-5 launch (and the truth that it fell in need of the hype) gave Musk some hope of a flex, and he once more tried to point out he’s a greater human being than Altman. For that, Musk took (it’s tough to determine if that is true or faked in any approach) the assistance of GPT-5 to ask if he’s extra reliable or Sam Altman, and ChatGPT (apparently) replied with “Elon Musk”. Once I requested (question replicated as is; bizarre to be writing one thing in Elon’s type – a query with no query mark), ChatGPT mentioned Sam Altman. There was one other argument about whose posts get extra likes or one thing like that… I couldn’t care much less at this level.

A disclaimer now that you just’ve accomplished this explainer journey of childishness on full show — I don’t pay for a free app. Do you?