Can we really make home appliances smart?

Xiaomi's investment in Midea has once again triggered speculation about the development of smart home appliances. What changes has this year's trend of smart home appliances brought to people's lives? At least for now, it has not brought any substantial changes. However, industry insiders still believe that the market for smart products and back-end services has unlimited potential, but development should not be "smart for the sake of smart", but should be considered more from a practical perspective.

Traditional home appliance companies and smart terminal companies are joining forces

This year, some traditional home appliance companies have announced their transformation. It is important to catch the intelligentization bandwagon early. Since the Spring Festival this year, many "old-brand" home appliance companies have successively announced their intelligent transformation strategies. Recently, Xiaomi has invested in Midea, a traditional home appliance manufacturing company and a smart terminal ecosystem company have joined forces, which has once again attracted the whole society's high attention to the intelligent transformation strategies of traditional home appliance companies.

On February 13, Galanz white goods reached a strategic cooperation with Tmall Electric City and opened the Galanz white goods flagship store on Tmall Electric City.

On February 25, TCL Group released a new business transformation strategy in the era of Internet transformation - the "double +" strategy of "intelligence + Internet" and "product + service". It comprehensively constructed TCL Group's transformation and new business model with Internet thinking, and redefined TCL Group's new user-centric values ​​and vision.

On March 10, Midea Group released its intelligent development strategy, which means that relying on technologies such as the Internet of Things and cloud computing, Midea Group will comprehensively deploy in the smart home market.

On March 17, Alibaba and Midea signed a strategic cooperation agreement. The two parties will jointly build an open Internet of Things platform based on Alibaba Cloud to realize connected dialogue and remote control of home appliances.

On March 18, Konka announced its strategic goal of transforming to the Internet, stating that in the future Konka will be committed to building an Internet operating platform for smart TVs.

On June 22, Little Swan released its smart washing machine development strategy, aiming that by 2016, 60% of its washing machines will be smart.

Viewpoint: Smart home appliances should start from simplicity and practicality

For a while, "intelligence" became the "magic weapon" for home appliance companies to seize the market. Whether it is black appliances, white appliances, or even kitchen appliances and small appliances, they are all under the banner of intelligence.

Regarding these intelligent products, relevant personnel analyzed that from the perspective of R&D ideas, companies continue to release various intelligent single products, and most home appliance companies are still focusing on the construction of intelligent single products and smart home platforms. However, whether it is intelligent single products or the construction of smart home platforms and systems, so far, very few have been truly accepted and used by consumers. For example, IoT air conditioners and washing machines can be controlled remotely through parameter settings, user customization of usage habits, intelligent diagnosis and other intelligent functions, such as watching TV programs on mobile phones. Many consumers said that these operations did not make them want to try practical applications, nor did they bring real convenience. Moreover, the settings and operations were more complicated than the simple buttons in the past, and people who wanted to save trouble simply did not use them.

Looking at the smart products that have been on the market, there is no smart home appliance that has truly brought about a qualitative change in consumers' lives.

Most so-called smart products are still at the level of "smart for the sake of being smart". Some functions are obviously designed to be called "smart products". The gimmicks far outweigh the practicality. Industry insiders believe that although many large traditional home appliance manufacturers have entered the field of smart home appliances, most of them are still at the conceptual stage.

Hypothesis 1:

More companies may seek to join forces next year

Can the cross-border cooperation between Midea and Xiaomi in Internet home appliances promote the landing of the smart home appliance market? Analysts believe that the cooperation between Midea and Xiaomi is expected to rapidly expand the market size of smart home appliances in a relatively short period of time, and use the market growth to guide more resources into the manufacturing and research and development of smart home appliances.

Especially in the context of the decline of the home appliance market in 2014, the two-end market is still the biggest growth point of the home appliance industry: one is the high-end home appliance market demand facing the middle and high-end population. The other is the value-oriented home appliance market demand for new technologies and new products. At present, the home appliance industry is undergoing Internet intelligence gene transformation, so it can be expected that next year will enter a concentrated outbreak and blowout period of new intelligent home appliance products.

Hypothesis 2:

The role of capital ties will become more obvious

Large home appliances are seeking opportunities for joint development, while for small and medium-sized enterprises, it may be easier to break through by leaving the traditional home appliance industry with the help of capital ties to develop new cross-border products. Therefore, relevant people analyzed that smart home will become the next new battlefield for home appliance companies to compete, and the marriage between Midea and Xiaomi will stimulate more traditional home appliance companies to seek joint ways to participate in the competition.

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.