The first step to solve the problem of smart home industrialization: do your part

At the 2014 WWDC conference, Haier, a Chinese brand and one of the world's largest home appliance manufacturers, once again sparked heated discussions about its cooperation with Apple's HomeKit platform: as an important part of Apple's iOS8, the core product released at WWDC2014, Apple has deployed smart homes through the HomeKit platform, and Haier, as the only representative from the Chinese market, the "largest gold mine" of smart homes, has become one of the first HomeKit platform partners.

Even if the giants make a "small move", it can become a "butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon rainforest" that stirs up a storm. Many domestic companies that have been "secretly working" have announced their own smart home appliances, smart home strategic products and platforms. This also includes Haier, which was pushed to the forefront by the HomeKit platform at WWDC2014. As early as several years ago, Haier launched the "beautiful living solution" U-Home. After entering the fast lane of smart home appliances in 2014, it launched the open "U+ Smart Platform", providing a large number of open interfaces and resources to developers and cooperative manufacturers, striving to create a standardized and platform-based open smart home ecological environment.

The gradual opening of the curtain of smart home appliances and homes is also the result of the increasing popularity of smart devices and long-term education in recent years. A set of data also makes "Haier" feel gratified: According to a recent questionnaire survey initiated by Sina Home, 90% of the respondents have heard of the concept of smart home, and all the respondents who have heard of smart home are interested in using at least one smart home product in the future.

In fact, not all news is good news. Another data in the same survey reveals the current status of "smart home": nearly half of the netizens who participated in the survey said that they have no real intention to buy it. More and more consumers are always paying attention to information about smart home products. The contrast in data "cruelly" illustrates the "true face" of this industry: it will take some time for industrialization to take shape.

Wait-and-see sentiment has become the general mentality of "potential users" in the smart home market at this stage. The reason is that, compared with the rich product series in the traditional home appliance market, the high price and small quantity of smart home products have become a bottleneck hindering the rapid industrialization of the market.

Faced with the generally high prices of currently launched smart home products, many industry insiders have also expressed their concerns. "Pricing strategy is a very important part of the development of smart home in China. If 'smart home appliances' are only for the purpose of obtaining higher premiums for service products, it will inevitably be a dead end," said founder Xu Jianwen. "We need industrialized smart home products and markets. Manufacturers and developers must fully tap into the real potential market of smart home in China, that is, the needs of the most popular users."

High prices are indeed an important reason for wiping out the enthusiasm of those interested. At a smart home salon event, 20 participants were randomly selected to launch a survey on a smart light bulb. When they learned that the price of this light bulb was about 50 yuan, more than half of the respondents expressed hesitation. The price of similar "non-smart" light bulbs ranged from a few yuan to more than ten yuan. When another "Philips Hue Internet-connected Light Bulb (Starter Kit)" with a price tag of RMB 1,698 was introduced, 100% of the respondents said they could not accept it.

"Smart home" gadgets sold on Apple's online store: Philips smart light bulbs worth 1,698 yuan

In this regard, many domestic consulting and data research institutions have made reports, all expressing similar views: the high prices of smart home related products are difficult to change fundamentally in a short period of time; affected by high prices and awareness, by 2017 (nearly 4 to 5 years), the main industrialization bases and sales markets of smart home products were concentrated in relatively economically developed regions such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

What is more troubling to industry insiders than the high prices is the speculative mentality of some manufacturers who use smart home products as a gimmick and the utilitarianism of trying to gain something in the capital market. This mentality has spawned a number of "smart" products that are packaged with "leading" concepts, are not mature, and are not very easy to use. Among them, the "smart home appliances" launched by Internet companies that lack product design and development capabilities are the first to bear the brunt.

How do traditional home appliance manufacturers do this? Let’s take a look at what Haier does.

Haier, which has taken the lead in cooperating with international giants and launching the smart home open platform, has adopted the following approach: not forgetting its duty and practicing its "internal skills" at the same time. During the World Cup, the "wind tunnel air conditioner" intensively broadcasted on CCTV Sports Channel attracted a lot of attention. The official name of "wind tunnel" is the circular bladeless air outlet design, while "wind tunnel air conditioner" is the nickname of Haier Tianzun air conditioner. This air conditioner with a rather subversive shape is equipped with an equally "subversive" control method: it supports APP, WeChat, voice and other control methods. Judging from the "universal view" of smart home, home appliances with these networking functions are undoubtedly standard smart home appliances, but Haier Tianzun air conditioner can provide more than just changes in human-computer interaction and control mode. Tianzun air conditioner has changed the way traditional cabinets mix hot and cold air in the room, and mixes hot and cold air in advance in the circular air outlet, making the air output softer and more comfortable, achieving "cool but not cold, warm but not dry"; at the same time, the "PMV" system equipped can also intelligently adjust the temperature, humidity, air volume and air supply mode according to the comfort needs of the human body.

Haier Tianzun air conditioner is very popular during the World Cup

Let us try to answer the question of what is the origin of smart home appliances. Perhaps the answer is simple: they are still home appliances.

The two new washing machines unveiled at the "Haier 2014 Washing Industry Fans Festival" on July 30 - Haier No-cleaning Washing Machine and Casarte Yunshang Drum Washing Machine - are also such "smart home appliances": the No-cleaning Washing Machine has the original "smart ball" technology, which cleans the inner and outer drums simultaneously during washing, ensuring that these sanitary dead corners will not be covered with dirt; Yunshang drum has unique washing and care program settings for hundreds of high-end fabrics, ensuring the cleanliness and safety of high-end fabric clothes. Of course, these two new products can be operated through new interactive control methods such as WeChat and APP, which is undoubtedly also a part of Haier's smart home layout.

These "smart home benchmarks" that added icing on the cake did not occupy more than one page of PPT at the press conference, and the product manager only mentioned them in one sentence. Let's make an assumption that even if the iconic features of "smart home appliances" such as "APP, WeChat, voice control" and "networking function" are removed, "Tianzun" is still an air conditioner with excellent performance and distinctive product features, and "no-cleaning washing machine" and "Yunshang drum" are still washing machines with originality and technological breakthroughs.

Behind the birth of Haier Tianzun air conditioner, free-cleaning washing machine and Casarte Yunshang drum washing machine is the story of extensive interaction between Haier R&D platform and users and netizens. Haier has established 10 major interactive channels and 19 interactive platforms for this purpose. The participation of real users played a key role in the development of these smart home appliances. Crowdfunding was carried out for the pain points of users in traditional products (traditional air conditioners are too strong and too cold, the inner and outer barrels of traditional washing machines are full of dirt, and high-end fabrics cannot be machine washed, etc.). These "pain points" constitute the essence of user needs. In the end, Haier solves the problems and realizes user needs.

Haier No-clean Washing Machine

"Smart home appliances" are first and foremost home appliances. If they can't do well, let alone "smart" them. At a time when standards have just been formulated and industrialization has not yet begun, "smart" is not a pain point for users. According to the four-quadrant rule, these "important but not urgent" tasks still require the industry to spend time to slowly solve. Doing our part well may be the first step to solving the current smart home industrialization problem.

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.