Recently, reporters visited the sales stores of many companies and found that the smart home market, which uses home appliances as its entrance, is rapidly expanding and maturing, and fierce competition among leading manufacturers has begun.
Judging from on-site visits and market data statistics, in the field of smart home, the growth momentum of non-traditional home appliance companies is stronger than that of traditional home appliance companies.
The home appliance industry is at a critical intersection of “route choice”. Is hardware first and manufacturing first, or software and intelligence first?
In recent years, many Internet companies have entered the home appliance industry. They did not choose the asset-heavy model of building their own factories. Instead, they found OEMs or co-branded products with second-tier home appliance manufacturers. They relied on leading software system development and “storytelling marketing” capabilities to quickly achieve brand success.
At the same time, leading home appliance manufacturers are also embracing the wave of intelligence.
It can be seen from public information that many leading home appliance manufacturers have announced that they will upgrade to “AI +” technology companies. The product side is intuitively reflected in smart home appliances and whole-house intelligence.
The “AI narrative” of the home appliance industry is grand, but the current terminal implementation is specific and nuanced.
For example, smart refrigerators that can open curtains, turn on lights, and adjust air conditioners with voice control, and can identify ingredients and monitor the quantity of ingredients, etc.
However, it is worth thinking about whether these innovative products are really useful and necessary.
In fact, although many smart home appliances are innovative, the gains brought by innovation are limited.
Today, the AI-based home appliance industry has not launched many revolutionary new products that are eye-catching, “I have what no one has” and “must buy”.
There are even cases where some intelligent settings forcefully change users’ habits and cut them to suit their needs.
On the B side, many hotels have taken the lead in using “whole-house intelligence”, but home users have been slow to adopt it.
One of the important issues is “barriers between brands”.
To realize whole-house intelligence, it is often necessary to make pre-arrangements at the beginning of decoration, and try to purchase home appliances of the same brand and system.
This “one-stop packaging” model deviates from consumers’ previous home appliance purchasing habits.
Consumers may like different brands of home appliances, such as air conditioners from this house, refrigerators from that house, and TVs from a third house. They are “individually intelligent” and not interoperable, which will inevitably increase the cost of use.
If home appliance companies use “smart systems” as hidden bargaining chips for bundled sales, they are likely to be punished by the market.
In short, while intelligent home appliances bring opportunities, they also face many challenges, which require joint efforts by enterprises and the market to solve.
