Moji "Air Fruit" is in an awkward situation

Moji "Air Fruit" is in an awkward situation
Since it is an Internet company that wants to make hardware, the news that Moji Weather wants to make smart hardware has attracted much attention from the beginning. The answer was revealed on Mother's Day. Moji launched "Air Fruit", which integrates the detection and reminder of temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, PM2.5 and other data, and is priced at 999 yuan. There is also an outdoor version that connects to Air Fruit through Zigbee. In addition, Air Fruit also provides APIs for smart air conditioners, purifiers and humidifiers. Price and battery life are the main drawbacks If you want to find a device similar to Air Fruit, it must be Birdi from the United States. Birdi monitors health hazards, pollution and emergencies in the air, including smoke, dangerous substances (carbon monoxide), allergens (pollen) and air quality (particles, temperature, humidity, air freshness). In addition to preventing emergencies, Birdi can also score air quality and provide improvement suggestions. At the same time, it will open APIs to devices such as air purifiers. Birdi has three characteristics: simple, beautiful and smart. Mobile App can view reports and receive warnings. In dangerous situations, Birdi App can also directly call the fire alarm. The price is 119 US dollars, about 740 yuan, and its app will support Chinese. Moji AirFruit is almost a subset of Birdi. But its price is as high as 999 yuan, which is much higher than the price of Birdi and Nest Protect smoke detectors, and even more expensive than some low-end air purification devices. The price has reduced the audience of AirFruit a lot. Many geek users said that they would consider trying it only if the price is less than 500 yuan. The battery life of Moji AirFruit is a few days, and the outdoor version is longer, two weeks. This is still a big challenge for users. Monitoring devices such as Nest Protect can last for several years. Of course, the simplicity, beauty and intelligence that Birdi focuses on are also the advantages of AirFruit. It supports voice and gesture operation, and its avant-garde and atmospheric industrial design is praised by everyone. Moji Weather App already has 270 million users, and its software capabilities are beyond doubt. Adding, Moji bravely trial and error AirFruit is priced so high because the cost itself is high. MJ Huang Mingjie, an entrepreneur of smart monitoring equipment in cars and founder of Celery Technology, told Lei Technology that the main cost of air monitoring equipment lies in sensors and industrial design. One more type of monitored gas requires an additional type of sensor, and the price of so many air monitoring sensors supported by Moji Air Ball is not cheap. An unnamed air monitoring hardware entrepreneur told Lei Technology that carbon dioxide monitoring is not that intense, but sensors are expensive, which will greatly increase the cost. The more sensors there are, the more difficult it is to integrate them into a device of limited size. Moji Air Fruit integrates so many sensors into such a small device, and it can also achieve such a beautiful appearance. The industrial design is strong but the cost is also high. Lei Technology author "Gao Xiaosong's Sixth Uncle" wrote an article analyzing that the reason why the price of Moji Air Fruit is so high is largely because Moji is an APP developer, without the appeal of BAT, and has no say in pricing when negotiating with hardware modules, ODM, and OEM manufacturers. Only after scale can the industrial chain be controlled to lower prices. Lei Technology added that air monitoring equipment is relatively niche, unlike mobile phones and TVs, which have such a mature industrial chain. After modularization and scale, the cost can be very low. Jin Li and his team have added this time. In pursuit of multiple and comprehensive functions, cool and beautiful appearance, complex technologies such as voice and gestures are used in software intelligence. Crowdsourcing air data and building an ecosystem based on APIs are also planned for future models. Obviously, Air Fruit is a brave trial and error by the Moji team. The purpose of this version is not to spread the volume, but to target the high-end market and super fever users. The subsequent versions will spread the volume. Air monitor: the next wearable? Smart hardware around air can be divided into three categories: Monitors, which detect some gases in the air and provide real-time data and suggestions, and can also command air purifiers, humidifiers, air conditioners, etc. to take action. Moji Air Fruit belongs to this category. Monitors have different usage scenarios and purposes. Indoor, outdoor, car-mounted, portable, professional. In addition to conventional monitoring such as PM2.5, temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide, some devices also support formaldehyde, CO, allergens, radioactive materials, and electromagnetic radiation. Smart monitors collect air indicators by loading sensors, use apps for analysis and information services, and control other devices through APIs to make some responses. Alarms, such as Nest Protect, can alarm through sound, light, remote app reminders, and calling fire phones when there is an emergency in the air. Their monitoring targets are some dangerous gases, such as carbon monoxide, smoke, high temperature, and gas. Processors are devices that can make some actions to affect the air. Including purifiers, humidifiers, dehumidifiers, constant temperature systems, smart air conditioners, smart fans, smart windows, and activated carbon purifiers. There are many smart hardware that span several fields. Birdi is both an alarm and a detector; T3 Air Guard can do both purification and monitoring; Nest integrates perception, learning, monitoring, and constant temperature control. Modern people pay more and more attention to health. The current situation of poor air quality makes everyone pay special attention to the air environment. The popularity of PM2.5 monitoring apps can prove this. Therefore, it is inevitable that smart air monitoring hardware will attract attention. In the future, more and more smart air monitoring-related hardware will be launched on crowdfunding websites and meet us. Independent air monitoring may become a pseudo-demand. The biggest challenge for smart air monitoring equipment is whether it can grasp people's "demand behind the demand" and make users willing to pay for it. People pay attention to the hidden demand of air quality because they want to make the air better. Based on this logic, an entrepreneur of smart gas alarm who does not want to reveal his name said that he is not optimistic about independent air monitoring equipment. "What can users do if they know that there is a problem with the air?" People's pain point is not that they don't know how bad the air is, but that they know it but find it difficult to change, whether it is PM2.5, formaldehyde in a newly renovated house, or a newly bought car. Air alarms and processors have found the rigid demand. The alarm informs the user in dangerous situations, and the user can immediately take a series of measures to eliminate the danger. The processor can directly change the air to make people's lives more comfortable and safer. Another point is very fatal to independent monitoring devices: the alarm can monitor the air while making an alarm, such as Birdi; the processor can also monitor the air while changing the air, such as TCL and 360's Air Guard. The air monitor can "command" the smart curtains to open the window through the open API, and command the smart air conditioner and purifier to operate. However, as the Birdi team said, it is not easy to achieve this. Before the product reaches a certain inventory, it is impossible for air conditioners and purifiers of various brands to be compatible with yours. Therefore, the air monitor is likely to become the next wearable bracelet, which has high attention, but ultimately fails to solve the needs behind users and is difficult to sustain. Wearable bracelets tell us sports data, but do not make us slim and strong. Once smart watches launch similar functions, users are likely to choose the latter. Big data? Big data is empty talk before the product reaches the tens of millions level. Currently, there are few types of smart hardware that exceed the millions level. Even with a large number of devices, only a few players such as Baidu and Alibaba can mine and process these data. The data of Midea's smart air conditioner has been handed over to Alibaba Cloud's smart home platform, and Baidu's Dulife platform is collecting massive data from various health smart hardware. It is best for smart air monitoring equipment to cooperate with them. Crowdsourcing weather? A friend who specializes in meteorology told me that if you have basic knowledge of meteorology, you will not think that the data collected by smart hardware can help weather forecasting. Weather forecasting is a highly professional discipline. A large number of meteorological stations and massive professional monitoring equipment have been laid out across the country. Weather forecasting itself is a typical big data application. There is also the issue of accuracy. An air monitoring practitioner said that to accurately monitor air indicators, a learning curve, a correction algorithm, and high-precision sensors are required. The higher the accuracy, the higher the cost. This is a challenge for Moji Air Fruit and other smart air monitoring hardware. Air is something that people care about. Smart hardware startups around it must find people's pain points and rigid needs, and find the needs behind user needs. Consumer smart hardware that only does air monitoring is difficult to exist independently. In the future, Moji's "Air Fruit" is likely to expand some more rigid functions, such as alarms or processors. Moji Air Fruit is the vanguard of Internet players entering the hardware industry. It has achieved initial success in industrial design and intelligent interaction. This is only its first version, and we are looking forward to the next Air Fruit.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.

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