From single-product intelligence to ecological collaboration, China’s smart home industry is undergoing a profound transition.
In 2026, China’s smart home appliance market is expected to exceed 833.5 billion yuan, with shipments of whole-house smart devices reaching 300 million units, and a penetration rate exceeding 35%.
Xu Xing, chief marketing officer of Midea China, made it clear: “2026 will definitely be the first year of the explosion of whole-house intelligence.” Behind this declaration is the turning point in the cycle of China’s smart home industry from “trying early adopters of technology” to “experience is king.”
Looking at the current smart home market, a “pyramid” competition pattern has been formed, with the three major camps each showing its capabilities.
The technology ecology represented by Xiaomi and Huawei, relying on their advantages in operating systems and user base, are trying to define interconnection standards – Xiaomi’s AIoT platform has more than 1 billion connected devices, and Huawei’s Hongmeng Smart Home has 182 million connected devices.
The traditional manufacturing faction with Haier and Midea as its core relies on its supply chain and full-category coverage capabilities to develop scenario-based services.
Vertical specialists represented by Oribo and Tuya Smart have built technical barriers in segmented fields.
The key turning point will occur in March 2026.
The Global Smart IoT Alliance teamed up with seven giants including Haier, Midea, and Huawei to release the “Smart Home Unified Internet Series Standard” (OneConnect).
This set of “Chinese version of Matter” standards directly addresses the pain points of cross-brand interconnection, marking the industry’s shift from “scale competition” to “value synergy.”
As technology matures and costs drop, smart homes are accelerating from “high-end early adopters” to “mass popularization”.
Brands are lowering the threshold – the price of whole-house smart products has been adjusted from hundreds of thousands to entry-level solutions of less than 10,000 yuan, and mid-range plans of 30,000 to 50,000 yuan, fully entering the era of “equal rights” in price.
Whether it’s Haier’s “same-day installation, same-day use” and “can be used even if the Internet is disconnected”, or Huawei’s 24-hour smart modification, no need to break the wall and no wiring, they all provide guarantee for the introduction of whole-house intelligence into more families.
From the perspective of industry trends, whole-house intelligence is evolving from single-product interconnection to active intelligence.
Multi-modal interaction integration deeply integrates voice, gestures, and visual sensing to achieve “senseless” natural interaction; the connection of large models on the device and the cloud enables the system to have the ability to understand intentions and make independent decisions, shifting from “executing instructions” to “predicting needs.”
At the same time, the popularity of the Matter protocol breaks down brand barriers, and the integration of light, storage and charging is combined with AI energy consumption optimization to achieve dynamic household energy scheduling and peak and valley arbitrage.
Huawei’s Hongmeng, Xiaomi’s ThePaper OS, and Apple’s HomeKit are accelerating ecological integration and promoting the industry’s transition from “connection” to “smartness.”
In the future, the whole-house smart market is expected to continue to develop rapidly.
With the continuous advancement of technology and the gradual improvement of standards, smart homes will bring people a more convenient, comfortable and intelligent life experience.
Both consumers and enterprises will find their own development space in this market full of opportunities.
It is believed that in the near future, whole-house intelligence will truly enter thousands of households and become an indispensable part of people’s lives.
