Recently, Midea and Huawei have jointly launched Hongmeng Smart Selection air conditioners, and the American “Fengshen Eye” air conditioner has been sold out immediately after its launch, bringing Hongmeng Smart Home’s three-layer smart connection/smart selection/self-developed layout to the forefront.
Behind this seemingly layered model lies Huawei’s complete ecological plan in the smart home field, which we can dismantle one by one from four different dimensions.
From Huawei’s own strategic perspective, the three-layer layout is a combination of precise adaptation
The Zhilian layer is responsible for the core task of rapidly expanding the ecological scale. As of May 2026, Hongmeng Zhilian has access to 3200+ brands and 400+ categories, and the number of terminal devices equipped with HarmonyOS 5 and above has exceeded 55 million.
, quickly built a device connection network covering all categories.
The smart selection layer aims at breakthroughs in the high-end market and adopts a dual-track cooperation model: on the one hand, it deeply binds “ecological direct relatives” such as American Barney to create benchmark products. The retail sales of the “Eeos of the Wind God” air conditioner of American Barney exceeded 4,000 units within 28 hours of its launch, topping the JD.com double list; on the other hand, it joins hands with industry leaders such as Midea to quickly complete the category matrix. Midea has upgraded from 30 + category smart connection access to smart selection joint research and development.
The self-research layer focuses on overcoming common technical barriers in the industry, and has currently implemented core technologies such as PLC power line carrier, millimeter wave radar AI human sensing, and 3D light sensing: PLC technology solves the pain point of traditional WiFi being weak through walls. In Dongguan High School
Hundreds of devices are connected stably in high-end residential projects; millimeter-wave radar technology allows air conditioners to achieve a personalized experience of “avoiding wind and people blowing”; 3D light sensing solutions can detect abnormal behaviors such as falls and bed falls without taking pictures, taking into account both experience and privacy security.
From the perspective of cooperative home appliance manufacturers, differentiated models meet diverse cooperation demands
Manufacturers of different sizes and different positionings can find suitable cooperation paths in the three-layer layout:
- Small and medium-sized brands can quickly connect through the intelligent connection layer
By entering the Hongmeng ecosystem, you do not need to develop your own operating system and connection protocols, but you can obtain Hongmeng full-scenario traffic support, lowering the threshold for intelligent transformation - Partners with technical capabilities can enter the smart selection layer and receive Huawei’s full-stack technology empowerment. For example, after Mager Home cooperated with Hongmeng Smart Home, it relied on Hongmeng technology to obtain 500
+
National patent; the air conditioner jointly developed by Midea and Huawei launches the industry’s first “Fresh Air Double 37 Standard”. The fresh air volume can still reach 37m³/h under 37 decibels of noise, and can maintain the carbon dioxide concentration within the national health standards all night long, escaping the price involution of traditional home appliances - The smart selection layer adopts a model copied from the car track
The “Sales Model” involves both parties sharing risks and profits. Huawei obtains a share through technology licensing, brand endorsement and channel empowerment. Partners can obtain profit margins higher than the industry average. Products can also be prioritized for sale through core channels such as Huawei stores and online malls, significantly reducing customer acquisition costs
From the perspective of industry-wide competition, layered ecology builds differentiation barriers
Compared with the single open access model of competing platforms such as Xiaomi Mijia, Hongmeng Smart Home’s three-tier layout has very obvious advantages:
- In terms of strategic logic, Huawei focuses on technology empowerment, while competing products focus on traffic scale. Huawei’s core technologies are all self-developed and do not require
Relying on third-party suppliers, it takes the initiative in industry technology iterations - In terms of cooperation model, Huawei’s three-tier differentiated cooperation can cover both the mass market and the high-end market, avoiding the problem of brand tonality solidification caused by competing products focusing on cost-effectiveness
- In terms of ecological collaboration, Huawei has opened up the full-scenario linkage of “people, cars, and homes”. Hongmeng Intelligent has delivered a total of 1.39 million vehicles, of which the Inquiry brand contributed 78.4% of sales, which has verified “technical empowerment”
+ the feasibility of the “ecological collaboration” model, while the ecology of competing products is still centered on home equipment and has weak cross-scenario collaboration capabilities
It is worth noting that the mandatory national standard for smart homes is expected to be released in 2026 and enforced in 2028. Huawei’s technical reserves and standardized ecological layout are highly consistent with the national standard requirements, and will benefit from the trend of industry standardization in the future.
At the level of ordinary user experience, the three-layer layout has real perceptible value
For consumers, the experience improvement brought by the three-layer layout is very intuitive:
- The whole house equipment linkage can be achieved without binding a single brand, and the intelligent connection layer covers 400+
All categories of devices can be uniformly controlled through Huawei mobile phones, tablets and other terminals, avoiding the “ecological island” problem where devices of different brands cannot be interconnected - Smart selection layer products provide differentiated experiences that traditional home appliances do not have, such as AI human-sensing air conditioners, privacy-friendly security monitoring and other functions, accurately solving the current pain points of homogeneous smart home experience
- Self-developed unified technology base
It ensures the consistency of the whole-scenario experience. Devices of different brands remain unified in terms of connection speed, response logic, and interactive experience. There will be no confusion in the operation logic of different devices. At the same time, the domestically produced system attributes further ensure the security of home networks and data.
A comprehensive analysis from four dimensions can be seen that the three-layer layout of Huawei Hongmeng Smart Home is essentially a set of “scale expansion”
+ High-end breakthrough + Core control” full-scenario ecological strategy. Its core goal is not to become a home appliance brand, but to become the underlying technology service provider and standard definer in the smart home industry.
The intelligent connection layer captures the entrance scale, the intelligent selection layer builds user reputation, and the self-research layer builds technical barriers. The three work together to form a complete closed loop from basic connection to high-end experience.
In the context of industry standardization, this ecological model that takes into account both breadth and depth has stronger long-term competitiveness than the single traffic model of competing products, and will become the core support of Huawei’s all-scenario smart life strategy in the future.
