Huawei, Xiaomi, Skyworth, Gree and others have issued new strategies or new trends. Although they are giants in the fields of communications, Internet, and home appliances, they all have a common point, that is, smart home.

With the advent of the 5G era, around the AIOT strategy, on the one hand, Huawei and Xiaomi are expanding and accelerating the smart home layout of home appliances; on the other hand, Gree and Skyworth continue to advance into the home field and intend to occupy the smart home Commanding heights.

From the perspective of industry insiders, under the smart home ecosystem, the boundaries of the communications, Internet, home appliances, and home industries will become increasingly blurred. Competition and cooperation between giants in different fields are conducive to the development of smart home, and due to the market With huge capacity, Gree and Xiaomi can share development opportunities.

Gree and Skyworth penetrate into the field of home furnishings

On November 27, Skyworth Group released Skyworth's "Smart Control Coffee Table" product at its Smart Habitat Strategy Conference, pioneering the creation of a new category of "Smart Home Furnishing" in the home appliance industry. This coffee table uses a variety of intelligent control technologies such as high-definition video technology, voice recognition technology, and multi-touch. It is positioned as a smart person who integrates housekeeping, home entertainment, freezer (ice bar), smart audio, and wireless charging. Home control center.

On the same day, Skyworth also held a strategic cooperation agreement signing ceremony with partners from the real estate, home improvement, home furnishings and other fields, bringing the smart system technology to the planning, design, and construction of smart living quarters. "Family" as the center of the future beautiful living environment.

"We believe that there will be no smart home in the future. It is just a rough room for technology. Everything in the home needs to be embedded with technology. In the future, it will be difficult to distinguish between home appliances and furniture. The home control center will replace the traditional home appliance control model at a fast speed, and the new category of intelligent control will also become a new profit growth point for Skyworth Group.

Coincidentally, when the chairman of Gree Electric (60.800, 3.09, 5.35%) was invited to attend the "Light of Momentum" China Home Industry Reshaping Industry Chain Value System Conference, many brands once again said that Gree will strengthen the smart home strategy. At the scene, Gree Group also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the National Chamber of Commerce and Industry Furniture Decoration Industry Chamber of Commerce.

At present, Gree Smart Home has launched five management systems that integrate energy, air, health, security, and lighting. In conjunction with Gree IOT mobile phones, AI voice air conditioning, finger vein smart door locks, etc., the “Gree +” APP can be used to achieve smart home-wide intelligence. Linkage. In addition, according to the "Global Smart Home Invention Patent Ranking (TOP100) for the first half of 2019" jointly released by IPRdaily and the incoPat Innovation Index Research Center, Gree has 219 patents in the field of smart home in the first half of this year, ranking second in the world and first in China. .

Huawei, Xiaomi plus size appliances

Also attracting attention is Huawei's new measures to promote the smart home strategy. On November 25th, Huawei launched the Sound family's first smart speaker, the Huawei Sound X smart speaker, at the launch event of the full-scene new product. At the same time, pre-sale was officially launched on major e-commerce platforms. It is said that this new speaker product can realize Huawei HiLink smart home product control, covering lighting, curtains, air purifiers, sockets / outlets, etc., air sensors, security and other categories, helping to realize the smart life of the whole scene.

In addition, according to Korean media reports, Huawei also plans to launch a 60-inch OLED TV in cooperation with South Korean LGD, which is mainly responsible for providing OLED panels. Huawei OLED TVs will be equipped with 5G communication capabilities and are expected to be available next year. Obviously, unlike the home appliance industry's advancement into the home field, taking smart screens as a landmark event, Huawei has taken steps to increase and accelerate the expansion and investment in the home appliance category.

From the closed to the open Xiaomi smart home, it is also taking the road of continuing to strengthen the home appliance category. On November 26, at the Xiaomi Developer Conference, around the core of the concept of "5G + AI + IoT Super Internet" proposed by Xiaomi, Xiaomi for the first time clarified its strategy on the IoT category: 1 + 4 + X, where 1 is the mobile phone 4 includes TVs, smart speakers, routers, and notebooks, while X is provided by ecological chain companies and partner companies.

This is the organizational structure established by Xiaomi's smart home business through continuous adjustment and trial and error. In the opinion of Mr. Luo, an observer of the home appliance industry, Xiaomi accelerated the transformation after the “mobile phone + AIoT” dual-engine strategy was determined last year, but as a result, Xiaomi ’s mobile phone has almost stopped growing in the domestic market. The clear IoT category strategy is clearly intended here. Continued efforts in the field may still continue its usual low-price market grabbing route.

Why are Huawei, Gree and Xiaomi all focusing on smart homes? According to IDC statistics, the global smart home market size reached USD 162.2 billion in 2017 and will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11% to USD 277 billion in 2022. The Chinese market is the main global smart home market. It is expected that the Chinese smart home equipment market will continue to grow rapidly in the next five years, and the market size will be close to 500 million units in 2023.

"At present, the penetration rate of the smart home market is only 5%. Of the smart speakers that have been sold, only 6% are connected to smart devices such as lights, switches, and televisions. It can be seen that the market space for intelligent ecological construction is huge. In Mr Luo's view, participation Smart home competition companies include both traditional home appliance manufacturers and mobile phone manufacturers, as well as Internet giants, and operators are also looking forward to building a big video and big connection smart home ecosystem in the era of the Internet of Things. Because of the huge demand in this market, they all have the opportunity to share this big cake.