Capital cooling, it’s time to tear off the veil of “pseudo-intelligence”

Recently, a list of the death of smart hardware was released and attracted the attention of industry insiders, which made people worry about all kinds of strange products in the field of smart hardware. However, some practitioners believe that the craze for smart hardware has not really faded, and the calmness of capital has just brought a process of precipitation and screening to the industry. So, what kind of smart products can survive for a long time?

Image source: Webmaster Home "Shadows in the Sun! Here comes the death list of smart hardware"

By observing the death list and market feedback, most of the first batch of eliminated products had a fatal commonality - "pseudo-intelligence".

Inappropriate introduction of new technologies

New technologies can bring a refreshing feeling to products, but if this is based on sacrificing security or operability, it can be considered inappropriate. The security issues mentioned here mainly include the potential dangers of personal injury and privacy data leakage to users caused by improper product design; the loss of operability is more easily felt by users intuitively.

The common source of these two types of problems is not only the lack of corresponding professional technical personnel in the product team, but also the immaturity of the technology itself. Somatosensory and VR belong to the latter category. Teams that lack independent R&D capabilities may be eliminated first, and even if they survive, it will be difficult for them to occupy the mainstream.

The lack of operability can be considered as a mistake in choosing the optimal technical solution. Some teams with strong technical backgrounds are prone to making such mistakes. For example, in data transmission between smart devices and mobile phones, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are relatively mature technologies, which are reflected in many aspects such as low cost, strong stability, simple operation, and high degree of standardization. In comparison, the development of optical communication technology is still in an earlier stage. From the perspective of cost and operation, it is not the best choice to apply it to the already flooded bracelets. Similar situations also occur in the use of voice control technology.

It should be pointed out that the cases mentioned above do not mean that the commercial prospects of these technologies are worrying. It can only be said that different technologies have different applicable scenarios, and the choice of technology cannot be separated from the product itself. The forced transplantation of new technologies to smart hardware should be based on user experience, and cost-effectiveness should also be taken into account. This requires effective cooperation between the technical team and the product team.

Meaningless function stacking

The superposition of functions is a common trick used by hardware manufacturers to make traditional products intelligent, and it is also a major feature of products on the market that are called "smart for the sake of being smart."

Networking and mobile phone management are the two most common functions of this type. The functions that can be achieved by this design are nothing more than data visualization or remote control. Such "intelligence" is not difficult from both technical and cost perspectives. The form of sensor + network module + APP has also created a large number of so-called smart hardware, but returning to the product itself, do consumers really need such an "upgrade"?

In terms of data, most consumers lack scientific knowledge of parameters such as calories and heart rate. If they cannot cooperate with professional service platforms, these numbers are useless to users. The difficulty of connecting with services is no less than that of the products themselves. Even large companies like Apple cannot avoid many policy obstacles when deploying services such as HealthKit and HomeKit. This involves the privacy data protection issue mentioned in the previous article, which puts higher requirements on the technology and integrity of the service support party.

The necessity of remote control is directly related to the product's usage scenarios and frequency of use. Some products that interact directly with people basically do not need to be used without people, such as TVs and speakers; many traditional digital products have been integrated into people's daily lives, with accustomed interaction methods and relatively fixed usage scenarios. Suddenly changing the control method will appear very awkward. For example, the inappropriate introduction of gesture control is not as convenient as infrared remote control.

The deliberate superposition of functions has also led to overlapping uses of smart hardware products. For example, smart bracelets, mobile phones, watches, headphones, necklaces and even buttons all have the same pedometer function. Even though the products have different shapes, they have no practical use for consumers. The correspondence between product attributes and functions will not change as a result.

Functional design should be based on user needs for products, but the functions of some smart products are very confusing. For example, a toilet that can sing, a refrigerator that can watch movies, a cup that can tell jokes, etc. Compared with smart products transformed from traditional products, emerging and invented smart products lack functional support corresponding to product attributes, and their risks are more susceptible to the control of product demand. Drones and balance bikes belong to the latter.

Design that interferes with the essence of the product

Most smart products are realized by modifying traditional products, that is, these products have their own functional positioning. These fundamental functions have imposed certain restrictions on the appearance, control and other designs of the products in principle, and manufacturers try to break such restrictions in order to make their products smarter.

Take dining utensils as an example. Their most basic purpose is to hold food, which also determines that the materials of the products should be healthy and non-toxic. In order to achieve some additional functions, some intelligent products on the market directly fill chemical raw materials into the products, which makes people have to worry about their safety; the function of audio should be to provide high-quality sound effects. What the product needs is a stable structure and necessary volume. Making sacrifices in this regard and pursuing some seemingly cool functions will bring about the loss of the essence, which is not worth the loss.

In the long run, the rules of the smart hardware market are no different from those of all other mass consumer goods. Whoever can solve practical problems better with lower costs will win more users, and the cooling of capital can be seen as a prelude to the increasingly rational consumer market. Perhaps one day, when what we now think of as "smart products" no longer appear in the name of "smart", the smart hardware market can be considered truly mature.

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.