Another major phone maker is officially joining the smart ring race, and it's not Apple
Samsung Ring prototypes at MWC 2024
While Samsung's Galaxy Ring sparked most of the health and fitness chatter at the start of Mobile World Congress, one major phone maker wants its smart ring to be the last thing attendees remember.
Also: I tried the Samsung Galaxy Ring and it beats the Oura in 2 meaningful ways
Chinese technology company, Honor, announced today that it will be launching a smart ring later this year, possibly before or in line with Samsung. "Internally, we have this kind of solution. Now we are working on that part, so in the future, you can have the Honor ring," George Zhao, Honor CEO, confirmed to CNBC.
While Zhao didn't disclose any specifications or hint at the features of the ring in the interview, it could be safe to assume that the Honor Ring will field similar functionalities as the Samsung Galaxy Ring, including general health and fitness tracking -- heart rate, sleep, stress levels, etc.
The Honor Ring is also expected to synergize with the brand's existing portfolio of products, which includes smartphones, smartwatches, wireless earbuds, and laptops. Zhao also mentioned to CNBC that "This hardware capability will work together with AI-enabled apps (and) can help you make the professional training course tailored for you because they studied your habits and health data to give you professional suggestions."
Where the ring may not be as competitive as the Samsung Galaxy is women's health monitoring; the latter has partnered with Natural Cycles to provide FDA-cleared skin temperature and fertility tracking, putting it in line with the feature set of market leader, Oura. Of course, Honor still has the year to pull things together, so we'll have to wait and see.
Also: The best smart rings: Expert tested
According to DataHorizzon Research, the smart ring market was valued at $147.1 million in 2022 and is expected to have a market size of $1,405.1 million by 2032. With new entrants like Samsung and Honor, and likely more to come (including Apple), the exponential growth of the market is not without reason.
It's worth noting that Honor has traditionally sold its products in major European and Asian countries, not so much in North America, so if you're in the market for a new smart ring (and based in the US), your options will be limited... for now.