Chinese Home Appliance Industry Giant Upgrades Smart Home for Transformation

"They said that hardware does not make money. It is behind the scenes to earn money. Later, it relies on services to make money. It makes our traditional business difficult. We are making money entirely from hardware." The 3rd China Electronic Information held here. At the industry expo, Yang Dongwen revealed in a keynote speech the typical attitude of the home appliance giant in the face of the current industry transformation.

The "spoiler" of the industry comes from Internet companies. In 2013, LeTV released "Super TV," and Xiaomi launched "Mille TV," along with other IT and Internet companies such as Alibaba, Lenovo and Iqiyi.


In 2014, known as the smart home "outbreak of the first year," smart home appliances companies have also launched one by one. "Hardware + terminal + Internet content" has changed the traditional industry model, occupying the TV in the living room, and has also changed from a pure program reception tool to a home intelligence control center and an entertainment center.

Behind this shift is the impulse to collectively upgrade the home appliance industry. In March this year, Gree officially entered the mobile phone manufacturing industry, and to complete the layout of smart home. Haier also launched the U+ smart living platform in the same period, with the help of mobile phone APP to realize the interaction between users and smart products. On April 8, the day before the opening of the 3rd China Electronic Information Industry Expo, TCL Smart Home Strategy also made its first exposure through the press conference.

Sweep the two-dimensional code under the air conditioner, pay attention to the public number, and you can control the air conditioner remotely using WeChat. In the summer or winter, this kind of intelligent control will enable you to realize the enjoyment of "people who don't arrive before the machine moves." This is the intelligent air-conditioning product that TCL will experience in the upcoming listing of China Electronics Information Expo.

Skyworth’s “wisdom family” uses TV operating systems as its entrance. Yan Ge, product manager of Skyworth Smart Home Development Department, told reporters that Skyworth's cool open system will automatically upgrade to version 5.0 at the end of May this year. After the upgrade, there will be an open platform for “wisdom families”, involving health, security, lighting, audio and video, air, etc. Many home life equipment. "The users of Skyworth smart TVs can add all the smart appliances in their homes to operate on the platform."

Yan Ge demonstrated to reporters that Skyworth has launched a "Golden Key" for families that do not have smart appliances at the moment - an app called "Finger Point Remote Control." The "Golden Key" of Skyworth, which has been on-line for five months, can control home appliances including set-top boxes, TVs, air conditioners, fans, projectors, etc. on an intelligent mobile phone through an infrared device. The TV part covers almost all of the products on the market. All TV brands. "This is the first solution to the 'intelligence' problem of too many remote controls for home appliances, batteries, and the lack of many applications."

According to the forecast of China's IOT Technology Research Center 2010-2015 China Smart Home Industry Development Trends and Investment Opportunity Report, China's smart home output value is expected to reach 138 billion yuan in 2015, and by 2020 this figure will reach 2 trillion yuan. .


In this market context, traditional home appliance manufacturers "intelligent" obviously can not just make home appliances "Internet access" and "mobile phone remote control" so simple. The home appliance giants found that for this piece of cake, the contestants showed their abilities.

On March 18th, Suning and Jingdong, the electrical appliance sellers that have a large number of users and channel resources, respectively announced the development of a new plan for the “smart home” industry. Suning and China Unicom jointly develop the smart home industry "wisdom wisdom home." Jingdong launched the "JD+" policy to create an open and complete smart industrial ecosystem. Internet company 360 announced that it will provide home appliance manufacturers with a "smart module" with a price of only 1 yuan, and will integrate the back-office system into the 360 ​​smart home open platform.

At the China Electronics Information Expo site, Alibaba Smart Life showcased smart home solutions for face recognition and voice control technology: Through face recognition, future smart homes can identify family members and set the temperature according to the family members' lifestyle habits. , lighting, music and other different home environments; through language control technology, smart home will get rid of the awkward situation of having to use a mobile phone as a remote control.

“Ali’s smart cloud is open to all home appliance manufacturers. At present, Alibaba Cloud Smart Life has access to more than 100 types, more than 100 brands and nearly 300 smart devices,” said Ms. Tu Zipei, Vice President of Alibaba.com.

This means that a cross-industry cooperation also implies a fight in the smart home market. Yang Dongwen said that after the smart homes come out, the air conditioners, refrigerators, and televisions are all the control centers of the family. Which center is centered around is also a question worth considering.

In Yang Dongwen’s view, on the road to smart homes, they need to complete the process of standardization through consensus formation. “Now everyone is fighting for users, and who has users who control them, which leads to the enthusiasm of setting standards and everyone is basically going their own way.”

At the same time, traditional home appliance companies are still faced with the challenges of intellectual property in the transformation of smart homes. Xue Guodong, head of Haier’s standard patent department, said that Haier’s “internetization” transformation strategy was determined in 2012, but “turning home has revealed that patent power in this area is weak”.

“Internet companies are concerned with Internet + manufacturing, healthcare, health, education, etc., while the industrial sector expects the industry + the Internet. However, in any case, these two combinations are important trends in the future, and 'Internet +' will generate new The state of the art further enhances economic innovation,” Huai Jinpeng, deputy director of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said in a keynote address at China Electronics and Information Expo.