Will smart speakers become a new entry point for smart homes? It is still difficult to copy the mobile phone model

Technological progress has greatly changed people's lifestyles. Smart home appliances have taken over homes to a degree that was unimaginable ten years ago. According to statistics, the retail sales of China's smart home appliance market was RMB 209.1 billion in 2016, and this figure is expected to reach RMB 281.5 billion in 2017, a year-on-year increase of 34.6%.

Among them, smart speakers, which were not previously well-known in domestic households but have occupied a certain position in smart home products, are gradually becoming a product that many people are happy to use. In addition, in the market research conducted by data agencies, 75% of global consumers, especially Chinese consumers, expressed optimism and welcome the prospect of smart home technology changing human lifestyles, which has created a favorable development environment for smart speakers that are expected to become the entrance to smart homes.

Some analysts say that compared to other smart home appliances, smart speakers have natural voice attributes. For the general public, it is easier to "talk" to a smart speaker than to issue commands to a tablet. Therefore, people are more likely to use smart speakers to complete instant voice wake-up tasks. At the same time, smart speakers also have the advantages of low production costs, small size, easy to move and relocate, lower power consumption and more energy-saving, which makes them easy to get started.

As one of the companies that entered the smart speaker market earlier and has a more complete layout, Amazon's smart speaker Echo has been considered to have been leading the development momentum of the entire smart speaker industry since its launch in 2014. Its voice assistant platform Alexa is still the only one that stands out. Relevant institutions have made estimates that in 2017, the sales volume of smart speaker devices running the Amazon Alexa platform accounted for about 68%. However, the emerging Google Assistant, Apple Siri, and Baidu DuerOS voice platform also have the strength to impact.

Although smart speakers are mainly sold in Europe and the United States, a large number of manufacturers have emerged in China to seize the local smart speaker market. Xiaomi AI Speaker, Tmall Genie, JD Dingdong, Himalaya Xiaoya and other manufacturers have also launched a new generation of smart speaker products this year in order to accelerate the occupation of the market.

In this environment, a market analysis agency has used data to say that in 2017, the cumulative sales of smart speakers in the domestic market will reach 350,000 units, which is a blowout growth compared to 10,000 units two years ago. Not only that, the smart speaker market will further expand next year, and sales are expected to reach 1.2 million units.

However, even with the broad market prospects, the role that smart speakers can play in domestic households is still relatively limited. First, due to the concept level and the acceptance efficiency problems unique to emerging industries, the penetration rate of smart homes in China is only 0.5%, which means that the penetration rate of smart speakers, which are deeply affected by it, is even weaker; secondly, although emerging industries represent the potential for market advancement, they can also be seen as a synonym for imperfect development, the failure to form a set of industry labels, and the lack of laws and regulations.

In addition, there are also situations where product homogeneity is too high and product quality varies. All of the above aspects will have a negative impact on the promotion of smart speakers.

Industry insiders said that smart speakers still have a long way to go before they can truly become products that consumers cannot live without in their daily lives.

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.