Market Update 2021: True Wireless Earbuds Evolving Toward Hearables

There’s a lot happening in the true wireless stereo (TWS) category and this market update article intends to provide a quick overview of the state-of the-art technologies and platforms in the space, as well as some reference approaches in product design. This audioXpress Market Update addresses what is happening in this vibrant product category in 2021.

Tempow, the Bluetooth-specialist, Paris-based startup, announced a new partnership with Zhuhai Jieli Technology, a leading chipset manufacturer in the TWS Bluetooth SoC segment. Jieli Technology is joining Tempow's chipset partner program to deploy TempowOS, an operating system for True Wireless Earbuds, on its flagship AC897N and AD697N extreme low power Bluetooth TWS solutions.

audioXpress April 2019 features a closer look at two hot application areas in audio, with an expanded Market Update about hearables and true wireless stereo, and an update on voice capture solutions. Also in this edition, Steve Temme (Listen, Inc.) addresses the challenges for testing the wider class of connected speakers, experts from Nokia Technologies explain how audio processing in smartphones can enable completely new features, and Luke McCready reviews the Qobuz hi-res music streaming service, now available in the US. Get your audioXpress now!

As audioXpress previously anticipated, French wireless audio pioneer Tempow has been developing a new technology approach to bring next-generation True Wireless Stereo (TWS) to the Bluetooth earbud mass market. Tempow's hardware-agnostic solution lets any smartphone manufacturer create wireless earbuds with near-zero latency, increased battery, and high fidelity, in alternative to proprietary or non-standard Bluetooth solutions.

CEVA, the leading licensor of signal processing platforms for connected devices, along with French wireless audio pioneer Tempow, unveiled a collaboration to bring next-generation True Wireless Stereo (TWS) to the Bluetooth earbud mass market. As mentioned in a recent article by CEVA's Marketing Director, Franz Dugand, the resulting joint IP solution delivers synchronized left/right audio over standard Bluetooth dual mode connected links with short latency and without the power consumption penalty associated with many of today’s TWS implementations.

Wireless stereo earbuds are super-convenient but are locked into proprietary solutions. Consumer-friendly solutions need to be interoperable. In the world of wireless earbuds we fairly quickly recognized, after Apple introduced AirPods, that earbuds connected by a strap were truly unconvincing in their claim to be truly wireless. Why did those other products even start with a strap? Mostly to keep power consumption down and to synchronize between left and right speakers, both of which become trickier if the speakers are really unconnected.