TechKr | Exclusive Interview with AfterShokz Executives: Why Can Open-Ear Headphones Trigger the Next "Category Revolution" to Disrupt TWS?
From Sports Isolation to Category Revolution: Deconstructing Shokz's "Open" Ambition and Core Technological Strength
In today's consumer electronics industry, where the growth dividend is generally reaching its peak, the audio track is undergoing a profound structural transformation. On the afternoon of May 15, 2026, after a heavy rain in Shenzhen Bay Square, Shokz held a highly anticipated media interview. Yang Yun, the CEO of Shokz in China, and Zhang Haofeng, the president of the product line, were both present to systematically explain to the outside world how this brand, which started with "bone conduction" and "sports", is not only maintaining its leading position in the global open-headphone market in terms of shipments but also launching an offensive towards a broader audio empire for various scenarios.
In the past two years, the overall sales share of open headphones in the Chinese Bluetooth headphone market has exceeded 30%. This is not just a change in product form but also a "category-level replacement" storm led by Shokz and sweeping the world.
I. Macro Strategy and Industry Insights: Remodeling the Global Audio Landscape with "Full-Scenario Category Replacement"
In the past, the public's perception of Shokz mostly focused on the two labels of "professional sports" and "bone conduction". However, in this interview, Shokz's senior management clearly pointed out that professional sports users and users in various scenarios are not an either-or choice. What Shokz is doing is to expand the definition of users from the initial "professional sports enthusiasts" to "every user who needs open listening".
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1. Comfort Becomes a Necessity: The Ultimate Logic of Crossing the Category Gap
The reason why Shokz made the forward-looking industry assertion that "open headphones have the opportunity to replace true wireless headphones" lies in its core insight into the fundamental change in users' daily ear-using habits. With the surge in the demand for online office, remote meetings, long audio content, online courses, and daily fragmented listening, the time modern people wear headphones is infinitely extended.
In the context of long-term wearing, the problems caused by traditional in-ear headphones, such as ear canal compression, stuffiness, hygiene risks, and the inability to perceive the external environment, have gradually evolved into irreconcilable rigid conflicts. The natural advantages of open headphones, such as "all-day comfortable wearing" and "safe and open listening", are enabling them to transform from a "sports auxiliary device" for specific scenarios to an irreplaceable "main device" in users' daily lives. Today, as the sound quality has been basically solved through technological iterations in recent years, and even in some products (such as OpenFit Pro) is approaching or exceeding that of traditional in-ear headphones, users' preference for comfort and open perception has become the decisive factor for open headphones to cross the category gap.
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2. The "GLOCAL" Strategy from a Global Perspective
In the process of going global, Shokz has won the first place in the global open-headphone market in terms of shipment share for three consecutive years from 2023 to 2025. Data shows that not only is the Chinese market booming, but also in key global markets such as the United States, Europe, Japan, South Korea, and Australia, the proportion of open headphones is continuously increasing, and the trend of replacing traditional in-ear headphones has become irreversible.
Facing global competition, Shokz's core market plan can be summarized as the "GLOCAL" strategy - think globally and act locally. Yang Yun compares the current headphone category competition to the new energy vehicle industry: the vast majority of core brands and top supply chains in the world are concentrated in the Chinese market. Therefore, Shokz chooses to use the fierce Chinese market environment as a "training ground" for R & D, relying on the strong engineer dividend and excellent supply chain advantages in China to develop standardized products that can impress and be sold globally in terms of hardware and performance.
However, in terms of software, services, and ecological integration, Shokz conducts extremely precise local in-depth development globally. For example, the newly released professional sports headphone OpenSwim Pro 2 has become the world's first headphone that supports wireless import and offline playback of QQ Music. This function precisely addresses the core pain points of local sports enthusiasts and is an example of the successful combination of global standardized hardware and the top local streaming media ecosystem.
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3. The Moat of Long-Termism: Rejecting Short-Sightedness
In a diversified competitive environment with many entrants, Shokz believes that the real moat of a brand comes from the underlying genes of "technological innovation" and "user thinking", as well as the determination of long-termism. Building a brand is the most difficult path, facing the greatest challenges and pressures. In the past 15 years, Shokz has only focused on one thing, which is to deeply cultivate open audio.
This restraint and long-term thinking are also reflected in its brand marketing and user communication. From the cross - border cooperation with the world champion of free diving Jin Ming to the launch of an art gift box with the global brand ambassador Zhang Jingyi, Shokz's strategy is not to blindly pursue quick money from traffic but to visualize the concept of "open listening and not being eager for quick success" through these partners who match the brand's tenacious and elegant characteristics, thus establishing a high - end, professional, and trustworthy brand barrier in consumers' minds.
II. Product Iteration and Technological Innovation: Breaking Through the Limits of Materials and Acoustics
To complete the category replacement of traditional TWS in a highly competitive market, simply relying on conceptual marketing is far from enough. It is necessary to break through the long - standing physical bottlenecks and industry pain points of open headphones through hardcore underlying R & D at the product and technology implementation levels. In the latest product matrix, Shokz has brought remarkable iterative upgrades through the in - depth integration of acoustics, materials science, and vertical scenarios.
1. Five Years in the Making: Defining a New Stage of Open Headphones with "Shokz Tianli Noise - Cancellation Technology"
In the process of popularizing open headphones, the weak noise - cancellation ability and unclear sound in noisy environments have always been the fatal shortcomings that hinder their entry into a wider range of scenarios. In response to this industry pain point, Shokz proposed the subversive concept of "open noise - cancellation" for the first time in the industry.
Openness and noise - cancellation are inherently a huge contradiction in physical and acoustic principles. At the beginning of the project, this technology even caused great controversy within Shokz. Many R & D personnel once thought it was an insurmountable physical gap. However, based on long - term investment in technology and the technological belief of "seeing because of believing", Shokz prospectively launched a pre - research project on noise - cancellation technology from the end of 2020 to 2021 - at that time, the now - popular ear - hook open headphones had not even appeared in the industry, and the R & D was carried out based on the future concept of bone conduction.
After more than five years of high - intensity technological iteration and optimization, Shokz finally launched the "Shokz Tianli Noise - Cancellation Technology". This technology has successfully broadened the noise - cancellation frequency band to nearly 4000Hz and reduced the noise - cancellation depth to 18dB, making it the first open noise - cancellation solution in the industry that can be perfectly adapted to multiple scenarios such as gyms, cafes, and offices. This marks a new stage for open headphones: they can not only retain the environmental perception and safe travel brought by open listening but also provide a clear and immersive listening experience. Zhang Haofeng even revealed that if this technology can continue to evolve in high - difficulty noisy scenarios such as high - speed trains and airplanes in the future, it will directly trigger the next complete revolution in the audio industry.
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2. OpenSwim Pro 2: The "All - in - One Data Terminal" Unlocking the Swimming Blue Ocean
Most audio manufacturers focus their sports headphones on the running track, while Shokz has precisely targeted the swimming market as the next decisive incremental breakthrough. According to Shokz's internal global research data, the number of people who swim regularly accounts for about 60% of those who run, which is a huge blue ocean that has long been underestimated by the industry. Since the swimming scenario is extremely monotonous and users cannot chat or take pictures during exercise, their demand for music motivation in the water is often stronger and more rigid than when running. However, due to the ineffective transmission of Bluetooth signals underwater and the strict waterproof requirements, there has long been a lack of excellent solutions in the market, and this field is almost a vacuum with zero competitors for high - quality audio.
Therefore, OpenSwim Pro 2 not only raises the waterproof ability to the extreme diving level but also installs a powerful 6nm custom chip and a nine - axis sensor inside the hardware. Based on a deep understanding of the real needs of users, if swimmers wear smart watches, frequently raising their wrists to check data in the water will seriously disrupt the rhythm of exercise and the continuity of swimming strokes. Through this top - level sensor and chip combination, OpenSwim Pro 2 can accurately identify core sports indicators such as swimming strokes, number of strokes, and swimming distance, and feed them back to users through real - time voice broadcast, perfectly achieving a closed - loop integration of acoustics, sports technology, and extreme scenario experience.
3. OpenDots 2: The "Micron - Level" Comfort Balance of Clip - on Headphones
In recent years, the clip - on form has been attracting traditional TWS users crazily because of its trendy attributes and unique wearing method. However, clip - on products always face an irreconcilable paradox in the industry: if they are clipped too tightly, the auricle is prone to pain; if they are clipped too loosely, they are easy to loosen and fall off during strenuous exercise.
To achieve the golden balance of "comfortable for long - term wearing and not falling off even during intense movement", the newly launched OpenDots 2, on the basis of perfectly inheriting the two core technological advantages of the "dynamic titanium arc structure" and "9G pre - tension" established by its predecessor OpenDots ONE, has made extremely delicate micron - level fine - tuning in terms of materials science and center - of - gravity distribution.
In terms of structural optimization, OpenDots 2 has compressed the width of the internal core titanium sheet to the extreme, reducing it by a maximum of 0.6 millimeters. This tiny size reduction greatly reduces the local pressure on the edge of the auricle. At the same time, the R & D team has re - optimized the center - of - gravity distribution of the headphones as a whole and comprehensively improved the resilience and fatigue resistance of the titanium sheet, thus ensuring that the headphones can still maintain an extremely stable, balanced, and high - performance clamping experience under long - term high - intensity and high - frequency stretching. This R & D route of resolving the contradiction between wearing stability and comfort through material innovation further consolidates Shokz's leading position in the field of comfort technology.
III. Future Strategic Evolution: Cool Thinking in the Flood of AI and Smart Hardware
In the current hardware trend where everyone talks about AI, and there is a fierce competition among smart glasses and wearable health monitoring devices, Shokz showed strong strategic determination and extremely clear - headed "cool thinking" in the interview. Facing future technological evolution, they did not blindly follow the trend but had their own well - structured methodology.
1. Radical Moderates: The Three - Step Rhythm of AI Reconstructing Smart Headphones
Regarding the booming AI technology, Shokz defines itself as a "radical moderate" internally. They firmly believe that AI will surely reconstruct the entire smart hardware ecosystem in all aspects in the future, but this process is by no means accomplished overnight and has a very distinct rhythm. In Shokz's blueprint, the implementation of AI on open headphones is clearly divided into three progressive evolution dimensions:
The first dimension is performance enhancement (fully implemented): This is the currently mature and widely applied stage. Shokz has deeply optimized the noise - cancellation performance of headphones, the noise - reduction effect of microphone calls, and the underlying acoustic sound quality through AI algorithms.
The second dimension is the revolution of interaction experience (in the process of transition): With the popularization of large AI models, the interaction medium between humans and hardware is gradually shifting from the past keyboard and screen to extremely natural voice dialogue. Due to the natural attributes of open headphones, such as being worn on the ears all day, not isolating the environment, and being worn frequently, Shokz regards them as the most natural and suitable AI natural voice interaction entrance, and there will be a huge opportunity for an interaction revolution in this dimension in the future.
The third dimension is ability enhancement (Shokz's most core strategic direction): This dimension is no longer limited to general scenarios but focuses AI on specific vertical scenarios. For example, by collecting users' real - time sports behavior data through sensors on the headphones and conducting in - depth processing locally or in the cloud with the help of AI, it can provide users with private - coach - level intelligent sports guidance; or in the office scenario, by using AI to process sound data, it can greatly improve users' office and productivity efficiency. This incremental ability in vertical scenarios is the trump - card direction that Shokz currently values most and invests heavily in.
2. Smart Glasses vs. Open Headphones: An Optimistic and Cautious Perspective
In response to the sharp topic of "In the Chinese market with 400 million glasses wearers, will smart glasses encroach on the living space of ear - hook/open headphones" that is currently hotly discussed in the industry, Shokz's senior management gave a calm and rational judgment based on the underlying business logic.
Zhang Haofeng frankly said that Shokz is an "optimistic and cautious" player in the glasses market. As a facial wearable device, glasses are much more complex and face more physical limitations than headphones. Users can hang a pair of light headphones on their ears all day without any psychological burden; however, if you try to force a whole display screen, a complex computing unit, and a large - capacity battery on users' faces, the "impossible triangle" physical contradiction among product weight, battery life, heat dissipation performance, and manufacturing cost cannot be perfectly resolved in the short term. Therefore, the popularization speed and commercial implementation rhythm of the combination of open headphones and AI are destined to be faster and more solid than those of smart glasses. Although smart glasses may have great long - term potential in the future, their technological challenges and iteration cycle are destined to be very long.
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3. The "Subtraction Philosophy" and Value Return of Health Monitoring
In the industry trend where smart wearable