According to a new supply chain report, Apple is set to release AirPods 2 sometime in the first half of 2019, and the new wireless earbuds with discrete designs to carry health monitoring functions are expected to receive enthusiastic market responses. Other brand vendors have all planned to launch wireless headsets in the year, with market competition seen to heat up soon.

Patently Apple posted a granted patent report back in December 2018 covering future AirPods with Biometric sensors built-in. Earlier in November, Apple updated their 'AirPods' trademark to cover 'wellness sensors." More specifically, the updated trademark added coverage for "health, fitness, exercise and wellness sensors for measuring, tracking, reporting and transmitting biometric data, heart rate, pulse meters, body movement, and calories burned."

While the Digitimes report touched on Apple specifics, the rest of their report is aimed indirectly to promote Taiwan's two leading flexible PCB suppliers Zhen Ding Tech and Flexium Interconnect that are the main suppliers for Apple Watch and AirPods.

The report makes it clear that both companies will also move to land orders from other brand vendors or for other applications.

More specifically the report notes that "The sources said that smartwatches are emerging as iconic product in the market for wearable devices. The Apple Watch 4 series, for instance, have enjoyed high market acceptance thanks to their additional health monitoring functions. Google has also announced that it will acquire related patents of Fossil smartwatches, in a show of its determination to foray into the smartwatch market."

The Android Headliners blog disagrees claiming that Google will be passing along their newly acquired fossil technology to Android smartwatch OEMs that support Wear OS that until this day hasn't been able to crack the strength of Apple Watch, even with Wear OS for iPhone.