| Mobvoi | |
| Type: | Private |
| Founded: | , in Beijing, China. |
| Area Served: | Worldwide |
| Key People: |
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| Founders: |
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Mobvoi Information Technology Company Limited is a technological company headquartered in Beijing, China that sells and develops consumer electronics and Chinese voice recognition, natural language processing, and vertical search technology in-house.[1]
The core team members include ex-Googlers, AI experts, former Nokia employees, engineers and researchers from top universities such as Johns Hopkins, Harvard, MIT, Cambridge, and Tsinghua or top-tier Internet companies such as Yahoo Beijing, Baidu, Tencent, etc. Since inception, Mobvoi has raised 5 rounds of funding led by Sequoia Capital, ZhenFund, SIG, Perfect Optronics Ltd (HK listed), GoerTek (A- Share listed) and Google with total fundraising amount of US$75 million.[2]
Mobvoi was founded in October 2012 by Zhifei Li.[3] In May 2013, Mobvoi released their Voice Search Service featured in the popular messaging app, WeChat.[4] In 2014, Mobvoi launched their independent voice search app called Chumenwenwen,[5] which covers over 60 vertical domains, providing various types of everyday information.[6]
In 2014, Mobvoi released their own smartwatch operating system, TicWear, based on Google's Wear OS. Among the modifications, TicWear removes Google's services, which are banned in China.[7] Mobvoi partnered with Frog Design to release TicWatch.[8]
In 2015 Google formed a strategic partnership with Mobvoi to work together on the efforts to bring Wear OS to China.[9] The Moto 360 was the first Wear OS device in China to carry Chinese voice search and voice controls powered by Mobvoi. Mobvoi also launched the Google-backed Mobvoi Store China.[10]
Then, in June 2015, Mobvoi launched the TicWatch in China, featuring their TicWear operating system. The TicWatch ranked first in sales for Android smartwatches in China, coming in second to Apple Watch on platforms such as JD.com,[11] Tmall, Suning, and Amazon. TicWatch has 100K+ users and 100M+ sales.[12]
In 2016, Mobvoi launched TicAuto,[13] [14] an AI enabled mirror for automobiles. CES 2016 showcased Ticauto and Ticmirror in the automotive field innovations section.[15]
In June 2016, the TicWatch 2 was launched on the JD.com's crowdfunding platform, and sold over RMB 12 million within 11 days. On July 25, 2016, Mobvoi launched the TicWatch 2 Global Edition on Kickstarter. The Kickstarter achieved its goal of US$50,000 in less than ten minutes and generated over 2 million in support in less than 29 days.
In April 2017, Mobvoi launched a chatbot that can communicate with voice-activated smart home devices.[16]
Chumenwenwen is a voice-activated AI assistance app available on Android and iOS devices. It enables searches in over 60 vertical fields of interest.[17] It provides users the ability to ask it for directions, restaurant suggestions, news, and weather information, among many other options. In 2014, Chumenwenwen became the official voice service provider for Wear OS users in China.
TicAuto is an in-vehicle voice app, integrating speech recognition, semantic analysis, vertical search, TTS and other advanced technology to provide voice navigation, POI search, instant messaging, and on-board entertainment.
TicMirror [18] is an in-car robot integrating Mobvoi's voice engine. TicMirror allows users to perform everything they could with TicAuto and more, with the addition of 7.84-inch touch screen that doubles as a rear view mirror. It has a 160-degree wide-angle lens, allowing it to be used as a 1080p dashcam. As an accessory to TicMirror, Mobvoi also offers TicEye, an Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) that provides front collision warning and lane departure warnings.
TicWatch is Mobvoi's first attempt at creating a smartwatch powered by their TicWear operating system, a modified version of Google's Wear OS. TicWatch is compatible with Android and iOS devices. It can be used as a standalone fitness tracker and has built in GPS and heart rate sensor chipsets. TicWatch was initially introduced to the market in China. A Ticwatch 2 Global Edition was later launched for the global users on Kickstarter. The version released in China features an eSIM data connection. This feature is removed from the Global Edition due to complications with cellular partners. The Kickstarter raised over 2 million dollars in funding.[19]
The TicWatch S and E models are Mobvoi's second attempt at crowdfunding a smartwatch device on Kickstarter. The devices are powered by Wear OS 2.0 instead of Mobvoi's TicWear, making it the models the company's first device using Google's operating system.[20] The Kickstarter raised over 3 million dollars with more than 19,000 backers.[21]
The TicWatch Pro[22] was released in mid-2018 running Google's Wear OS. It features a layered display, combining an AMOLED and LCD screen to extend the battery life. The watch offers two power-saving modes. In "Smart Mode", the LCD display is always enabled, only turning the AMOLED display on when awakened by the user. This mode provides with 2–5 days of battery life. In "Essential Mode", Wear OS is shut down, and only the LCD is active, only featuring time, date, heart rate, steps and battery display. In this mode, the device is expected to provide up to 30 days of battery life.
The watch comes with NFC (supporting Google Pay), GPS or AGPS, accelerometer, gyro, magnetic sensor, PPG heart rate sensor, ambient light sensor and low latency off-body sensor. It is rated as IP68 water and dust resistance.
In 2020 the TicWatch Pro was upgraded to the TicWatch Pro 2020, which retained most of the original model's specifications but doubled the RAM capacity to 1 GB, and added improved durability.[23] In early 2021, a subsequent upgrade was released, the TicWatch Pro S, which again had a very similar specification to its predecessors, but featured improved sports and health tracking capabilities. An error in a press release given to the media led many to report that the storage capacity had been doubled to 8 GB, but Mobvoi confirmed that this was not the case and the internal storage capacity remained at 4 GB as on the two previous TicWatch Pro models.[24]
The TicWatch C2[25] was released in H2 2018.
The TicWatch S2[26] and E2[27] were announced at CES 2019[28] and were released on 22 January 2019.[29] The two watches are identical except for the design and the fact that the S2 is certified for MIL-STD-810G military-grade durability, while the E2 is not.[30]
Both are powered by the Snapdragon Wear 2100 SOC, commonly used by other Wear OS smartwatches. The S2 & E2 both have plastic cases, heart rate sensors, 415 mAh batteries, and built in GPS. They run Wear OS and have a few Mobvoi apps pre-installed including TicHealth and TicExercise. The 1.39abbr=onNaNabbr=on diameter, circular OLED screen measures 979mm2 with 400×400 pixels giving a resolution of 114.3dpcm. The lugs use standard quick release spring bars and can be swapped with other straps including those sold by Mobvoi. They are both certified waterproof to a pressure of 5atm which means they can withstand a depth of up to 50m (160feet) underwater and are suitable for swimming. They have a microphone but no speaker. They do not have NFC for contactless payments nor an ambient light sensors for automatic brightness. They use the same proprietary magnetic charger by Mobvoi. They include 512 MB of RAM and 4 GB of storage.
The TicWatch Pro 3 GPS[31] was launched in September 2020. It's the second watch in Mobvoi's Pro lineup, the TicWatch Pro (2020) being the first. It operates on Google's Wear OS, just like the previous smartwatches from Mobvoi.[32]
The TicWatch Pro 3 GPS is the first Wear OS watch to use Qualcomm's Snapdragon Wear 4100 chipset.[33] It uses a dual-display technology, where the main display is an AMOLED display while the second one is a low power FSTN screen. The 1.4" AMOLED display is protected by Gorilla Glass 3 and comes with an IP68 water resistant rating.[34]
The watch's dimensions are 47 x 48 x 12.2 mm. It has 22 mm replaceable silicon straps. It contains minimal battery capacity of 577 mAh and nominal battery capacity of 595 mAh.
The TicWatch Pro 3 GPS comes with 1 GB RAM and 8 GB storage. The sensors include blood O2 saturation level, night infrared static heart rate sensor, accelerometer, barometer, gyroscope, ambient light sensor and GPS.
For this smart watch Mobovoi launched new applications like TicHearing, TicZen, TicOxygen and TicBreathe, while older applications like TicSleep, TicPulse and TicExercise were updated.[35]
The TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra GPS comes with Snapdragon Wear 4100 SoC.
Released on May 5, 2023, it is the first watch with the new Snapdragon W5+ chipset. Features Wear OS 3.5 and dual displays.