30 years of smart home development: a booming industry

Industrial chain integrates manufacturing and services

From the first smart building in the United States in 1984 to today, the development of smart home has been 30 years. But to this day, the impression of "smart home" on most consumers is still vague, and it only stays at the level of smart phones and smart TVs. This year, Google has spent a lot of money to acquire the smart home equipment company Nest, and Apple has launched the new HomeKit smart home platform... Internet companies are "making moves" frequently, and the competition with traditional home appliance companies is intensifying. Does this also indicate that the spring of smart home is coming?

The scope of industries covered by "smart home" is very broad, including traditional industries such as home appliances and communications, further developed security and medical care, as well as cloud computing, big data, and the Internet that are constantly evolving into the future... The applications that can be provided mainly include five aspects: audio and video entertainment, smart home, interactive education, health care, and home-based elderly care.

At the China Smart Home Industry Forum held recently, Qu Xiaojie, deputy director of the Audiovisual Products Division of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's Electronic Information Department, said that the smart home industry chain integrates manufacturing and services, covering multiple links such as research and development, manufacturing, operation, promotion and application, and service guarantee. The market size is growing at a rate of 20% to 30% per year.

It is estimated that by 2016, the global smart home industry revenue will reach 235.8 billion US dollars. Yang Shiyi, investment director of Gobi Partners, believes that the smart home industry is on the eve of an explosion. The hardware is ready. The sensor technology has been chip-based and can be placed in mobile phones or other single-chip computers. Secondly, the cost is gradually reduced. The development of Internet and software technology, including mobile Internet, especially the progress of big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence, has led to the initial formation of many products. As more and more smart products emerge, the coordination and communication between them will become more obvious.

User experience still needs to be planned

If there are 30 kinds of smart home appliances at home, do I need to install 30 corresponding apps on my phone? There is no unified standard and protocol for smart home and hardware industries, which greatly reduces the convenience of users. As a traditional home appliance company, Haier has been in the field of smart home for 15 years. In March this year, Haier released the U+ smart life operating system, which allows users to control home appliances of different brands in the home through a mobile phone APP. Wang Zheng, head of Haier's U+ platform, pointed out that the deadlock in the smart industry is manifested in two aspects: first, user demand has not exploded, because the price of smart products is high, the user experience is poor, there is a lack of killer applications, and it is difficult for home appliances to interconnect; second, the product model of enterprises is unclear, there is no definite model to learn from, and there is no unified standard to refer to, and there is fierce cross-border competition between Internet and traditional home appliance companies.

"Ease of use" and user experience are important indicators of product usability. Wang Zheng believes that current smart home appliances place too much emphasis on technology. "I think families should have emotions. In the past, many home appliances brought warm moments to families, such as watching the Spring Festival Gala and football games together. Now families are becoming more and more indifferent in the Internet era. When people are together, they just use their mobile phones to browse Moments and Weibo ." Wang Zheng said that smart homes should provide a family atmosphere, not just the coordination of various technologies.

At present, Haier U+ platform has entered the public beta stage, and the test laboratory will be opened next year. Its biggest features are full development, full compatibility and full industrial chain. In order to improve the user experience, offline experience stores in large and medium-sized cities are also being laid out, and will be connected with online stores for O2O. The recent "Haier Smart Life Experience Tour" exhibition exhibited products such as Tianzun air conditioners, formaldehyde detectors, smart ovens, high-temperature dishwashers, TVs and home theaters, covering all aspects of daily family life, aiming to allow people to experience smart life at zero distance and collect user needs at the same time. A Boguan smart refrigerator (also called a "transparent refrigerator") that can "interact with people", "adjust light" and "self-sensing frequency conversion" was warmly sought after on the scene.

Liu Wenchao, senior engineer of China Telecom Shanghai Research Institute, pointed out that only 5% of the country's users have access to broadband of 20M or above, while households have many types of terminals, such as set-top boxes, WiFi, computers, mobile phones, etc. The bandwidth is low, and the number of household terminals is large and the configuration is complex, which can easily affect the user experience and product awareness. The "Broadband China" Strategy and Implementation Plan proposes that by 2020, the broadband access capacity of urban and rural households in China will reach 50Mbps and 12Mbps respectively, and some household users in developed cities can reach 1 Gbps, creating a favorable environment for the development of the smart home industry.

From smart products to home appliance interconnection

Regarding the development of smart homes, the industry has always been in dispute over two paths: one is to make a single smart product, and the other is to make a complete system to provide users with a relatively complete experience. But obviously, a large number of new entrepreneurial companies lack the funds and strength to build a platform, and it is more urgent to produce some products that are close to user needs and cultivate the market. Dr. Lu Yang of the Telecommunication Research Institute of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology believes that products such as smart sockets, switches, and light bulbs are easier to enter on the one hand, and on the other hand, they are scalable and can be gradually expanded from one point to a system.

As an investor, Yang Shiyi agrees with this. In 2012, Gobi Ventures invested in five companies involved in the smart home industry, which were engaged in "small but beautiful" products such as indoor environment monitoring, smart thermometers, and smart sleep detectors. Yang Shiyi believes that single products are more suitable for domestic hardware smart home companies. "The technology and supply chain complexity of single products are much simpler than that of systems; in addition, single products are relatively cheap and users can buy them more easily."

Xiaomi has already incorporated the "single product strategy" into product development. The Xiaomi wristband launched in July is priced at only 79 yuan. Gao Ziguang, head of Xiaomi Technology's smart home, said that Xiaomi hopes to let users accept the single product first, feel what smart products can bring to life, and then accept the second larger hardware. Gao Ziguang said, "Smart hardware is very popular now, but the shipment volume will not be too large in the next two years. The first question is what benefits does intelligence really bring to consumers? The second thing is to solve the compatibility problem of the platform."

Sun Kai, director of the mobile communications division at GfK Market Research, believes that the ultimate product of a smart home is "terminal + software + service". In the early stages of development, smart products will be the breakthrough point. As smart products gradually mature, products can be interconnected, software and systems are constantly improved, and user experience continues to improve, "real services will be put in to form a complete smart home ecosystem." However, regarding the timetable, Sun Kai said: "It will take some time."

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.