Smart home enters the platform stage, Xiaomi and Haier take the lead

With Google's acquisition of Nest for $3.2 billion, Samsung's launch of the SmartHome smart platform, Apple's conspiracy on the smart home platform, and the exploration direction of international giants in the smart home field, another idea for the development of smart home products has been provided: to build a unified smart home platform.

In the domestic market, more and more manufacturers have realized that the user's family is a whole. The independent competition in the field of smart home has directly led to the incompatibility of electrical appliances on the market. Users cannot achieve unified control, and the isolation between products makes it impossible to fully implement the intelligentization of home appliances. Establishing a unified smart home operation platform has become an effective way to change problems such as inconsistent industry standards and poor product compatibility.

At present, some domestic enterprises have begun to build smart home platforms, and the leaders are gradually divided into two camps. One is the traditional hardware manufacturer camp represented by Haier, such as Haier U+ smart life operating system platform and Midea's M-smart smart home strategy; the other is the Internet manufacturer camp represented by Xiaomi, such as Xiaomi smart home platform and LeTV's smart home ecosystem.

Haier and Xiaomi are two companies with higher voices in building smart home platforms. In terms of specific operations, they have overlapping ideas but also have their own advantages.

The same idea

1. Play aggregation

Both hardware manufacturers and Internet companies have realized that the user demand for smart homes has not yet exploded, and the products launched by various merchants are basically incompatible. Whether it is the international Nest thermostat, Philips Hue smart bulb, or the domestic Haier air conditioning box and Midea smart microwave oven, it can basically be attributed to the "sensor + chip + APP" model, and users control the products by downloading application software. Ordinary families usually have dozens of electrical appliances. If each product needs to download an APP to control it, then users need to open dozens of applications and control the appliances one by one. Convenience is out of the question, which seriously damages the user experience.

Judging from the U+ platform that Haier has launched and the vision that Xiaomi has expressed, both companies are striving to build an open and mature business ecosystem that covers all industry content and related companies related to smart homes, including chips, modules, electronic controls, manufacturers, developers, investors, e-commerce, cloud service platforms, and cross-platform cooperation.

2. Fully open

To build an aggregation platform, openness is the basic rule for its success. In the platform, open protocols and interfaces help partners' products quickly upgrade to smart home appliances, achieve brand interconnection and data sharing, and save costs and shorten development cycles.

At present, Haier U+ platform has opened up cloud service data, smart hardware, APP and other interfaces to partners. Xiaomi, which has always been known for its open spirit and "geek" spirit, also stated that it will open up cloud services and protocols in the smart home platform and adhere to the usual practice of encouraging developers to participate to achieve rapid product updates.

3. Provide chip support

For some small and medium-sized enterprises that cannot afford to invest time and money in developing smart products, the aggregation platform will be even more important to them. As the leaders of the smart platform, Xiaomi and Haier have both stated that they will provide smart hardware and chips to partners, enabling small and medium-sized manufacturers to conveniently develop smart home products by implanting hardware.

At present, smart home is still a niche product in the home appliance market, and it is difficult for product sales to reach the million level, which leads to high costs for home appliance manufacturers to find chip manufacturers to customize chips. Haier and Xiaomi can solve this problem through platform effect and brand effect, reduce chip costs, and reverse the situation that smart home appliances are generally priced high.

Different advantages

For Xiaomi, MIUI is its trump card for entering the smart home field. In the future, if it opens MIUI's interface to its partners, based on its considerable user scale, a large number of traditional home appliance manufacturers will be willing to join the MIUI lineup, making their products more convenient to have Internet thinking. Once a smart home with MIUI as the core is built, Xiaomi will have woven a large network of the Internet of Things.

At present, the super practicality of the combination of Xiaomi router and Xiaomi mobile phone has allowed users to see the prototype of smart home. With the development and upgrading of a series of products such as Xiaomi wristband, Xiaomi tablet, Xiaomi TV, etc., the smart home camp with MIUI as the operating system will become larger and richer.

The person in charge of Xiaomi Smart Home said that in order to significantly reduce the cost of hardware manufacturers, Xiaomi will not only provide low-priced chips, but also open up almost all free Xiaomi cloud services, and the ultimate goal of cloud services is to realize the application of big data. For example, if a user has a smart ceiling light at home and someone is at home at noon, if 80% of the users in the community suddenly turn on the light, the big data will be calculated and the command will be transmitted to the user's home through the cloud, and the ceiling light will automatically turn on, because it is likely that thunderstorms will cause the local natural light to dim.

He believes that a true smart home platform does not simply aggregate all household appliance switches into one APP software. The smart home of the future will not need to be controlled by remote control, but will all be achieved through identity recognition, big data applications and cloud services.

Internet manufacturers represented by Xiaomi are making smart home platforms, and their application of Internet thinking will be more in-depth. Through a series of actions such as building a software platform through MIUI, using routers as entrances, controlling through mobile phones, completing identity recognition through bracelets, and providing low-cost chip support through brand effects, smart homes will be more humane, cheaper, and more fun, which meets the imagination of young people for family life.

Haier's U+ platform, which has already entered the public beta stage, is obviously ahead of Xiaomi and faster. As a traditional hardware manufacturer with a long history, sufficient funds and rich products, Haier has a strong appeal and a large user base in the home appliance industry. Using its own influence to increase the voice of the entire smart home market is the important task that Haier has to shoulder at this stage.

Haier's powerful sales channels are also difficult for Internet companies to achieve. At present, Haier has 3,000 community stores in the first and second-tier markets, more than 8,000 county-level stores, and 22,400 township stores. The establishment of physical stores allows consumers to actually experience the charm of smart homes in Haier stores.

Judging from the 300 partners of Haier U+ platform and the aggregated control APP released, traditional hardware manufacturers are more conservative in building smart home platforms and are more willing to attract consumers through brand integration effects. The influence on users is also more extensive, allowing traditional families to complete the construction of smart homes by upgrading electrical appliances.

According to the latest research by Juniper Research, the total size of the smart home market will reach US$71 billion by 2018; the size of China's smart home market will reach RMB 139.6 billion in 2018, accounting for about 32% of the global total. Faced with such an attractive market, the aggregation effect of smart homes can increase the shipment volume and popularity of single products. All companies have to put aside their differences and make the pie bigger first to achieve "a harmonious family brings prosperity".

Internet thinking and brand effects have their own strengths. For users, real smart homes may one day develop into smart homes that no longer need to be labeled as smart, because home appliances should serve users better and more humanely. In other words, the future of home appliances should be smart, affordable, and interconnected.

In the future, no matter which smart home platform model is successful, it will accelerate the arrival of smart home appliances.

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.