Intelligent Home Platform Warfare is the mainstream of the Internet

At the beginning of 2014, the concept of smart home began to explode around the world after Google bought the smart home company Nest 3.2 billion dollars. For a while, countless smart home companies and entrepreneurial teams springing up, to smart for the definition of hardware products began to become popular, from small to routers, cameras, sockets, light bulbs, door locks, curtains, large to refrigerators, air-conditioning, television, air purifiers have the function of intelligence. These appliances hardware products connected to WiFi, that is, the "brain", people can use mobile phone app to control all the household electrical products, and even these smart home products can automatically record the user's behavior, to provide you with services.

Intelligent Home Products and a group of Internet thinking way into the enterprise led to the early development of intelligent home industry. Since the beginning of last year, the interconnection between different types of products began to arouse domestic and foreign concern, in foreign countries, misfit and Pebble watches, Jawbone UP24 hand ring can be exchanged with the Nest thermostat; in China, millet and the United States, Haier and the charm of the marriage, Let two of products can achieve data sharing and docking. For the ultimate goal of smart home, that is, different brands of products can be connected to each other as a whole began to try, that is, smart home enterprises to fight the ecological war, whether it is Google and Apple, or Jingdong, Ali, Baidu, Tencent are trying to enlarge the concept of the platform.

One industry: The rise of the biosphere

Smart Home Platform for the beginning of the competition, to the electrical business as the representative of the Jingdong, Ali, Bat's company as the representative of Baidu and Tencent, the hardware brand as the representative of Lenovo, Haier, millet, Samsung and so on are beginning to build their own ecosystems.

Foreign company representative: Google, Apple, Samsung

Google has said it will include an increasing number of networked devices in future users ' homes after it acquired Nest, the smart thermostat maker. Although Apple did not release smart home products, but has begun to secretly layout, Apple CEO Cook has revealed that in the last year, the acquisition of 24 smart home companies, Apple in addition to perfecting its own product system, including the iphone, IPad, Apple TV to the planned iwatch, ITV outside, Because of its strong appeal, the introduction of MFI certification, so that a group of hardware company's products and Apple equipment interconnection. At present, including Philips, IHome, Withings, Kwikset, Honeywell, idevices, domestic companies such as Haier Hisense MFI certification, that is fully compatible with iOS equipment.

Samsung last year acquired SmartThings, an American internet platform, to launch a series of smart home products and announce an open ecosystem for these smart devices.

Representative of the domestic company: Beijing East, Ali, Tencent, Baidu, Millet, Haier, Lenovo

Domestic platform companies also began to imitate Apple, through its own product market share or platform influence to attract more smart home enterprises to join their own camp. For example, has sold 60.8 million mobile phone millet, occupies the global big household appliance market 10.2% Haier, all attempts through the resources exchange market. Whether it is the marriage of millet and the United States, or Haier u+ smart home platform has attracted to the charm clan, the pole route, such as a group of mobile phones and start-up companies to join, to build their own ecological system.

In 2014, Jingdong, in addition to investing in smart home Enterprises Broadlink, issued the JD program and the Beijing-East Smart Cloud, and launched a "super app" that can manipulate different smart hardware devices, through 3C sales channels and software platforms to attract partners.

Tencent, Baidu, Ali in addition to the hardware companies to provide cloud services and data cooperation, but also in the layout of hardware products, including Ali's Day Cat box, Baidu's blood pressure meter, Tencent's micro-letter photo frame and other products.

Haier will be a full range of products intelligent upgrade at the same time, began to launch ISEE mini smart projection, smart routers, air boxes, etc. to attract more flow of products, and u+ platform of more than 40 enterprises launched such as GE Wisdom Lighting, blue letter Kang Sphygmomanometer, Turman smart watch, Risco Security Suite, Power-tech intelligent sockets, PICOOC body fat meter and other third-party products.

From the action of these platform companies, smart home has been a competition between the single enterprise and will evolve into one alliance and another alliance, one platform and another platform.

Two products: interconnection and various control methods

1. Interconnection between different brands

The platform is unified interface, so that different intelligent hardware products can be interconnected, data sharing. First from the cloud data docking point of view, whether Ali, Baidu or Tencent Cloud, can be implemented docking. Second, the same brand of products can be obtained between the data, such as millet mobile phone, hand ring, routers, Haier TV, refrigerators, washing machines can achieve interconnection. At present, we are solving the problem of interconnection between different brands. Tencent says it has achieved a connection between people and devices, at present, mobile phone QQ has increased the "My Equipment" page card, can be added to the equipment management, access to equipment covering television, air-conditioning, air purifiers, sockets, lamps, curtain rails, cameras, scales, blood pressure meter.

Whether it is millet, Haier, or Beijing-east, Baidu, Tencent, all express the unified interface, the establishment of an open platform, so that more different types of products and different brands to achieve interoperability. But this goal remains difficult to achieve among competing goods.

2. A variety of control methods outside the mobile phone began to appear

At present, the vast majority of smart home products and mobile phone interconnection, through the mobile phone app to control and view the state of the device, mobile phones become smart home products of the best control terminal, perhaps taking into account security, the current smart home products have been touch, voice, gestures and other control methods. For example, washing machines, cleaners and so on now have products that support touch control, voice control is more embodied in television, smart speakers and other products, and hand gestures control in the water Cup, air-conditioning, sound on all have applications, as the independent remote control is not the home appliance with the remote control, but the independent hardware button, Such an independent remote control advantages of a strong versatility, can be controlled by a variety of home appliances, and do not need a mobile phone boot unlock the app a series of actions.

3. Smart hardware prices began to lower but high-end products are still expensive

With millet, music, such as the charm of the network of intelligent hardware penetration, whether it is television, or routers, air purifiers, are beginning to hundred yuan, the following products appear. But these products are only simple or low-end smart products.

If users choose more well-known smart home products, such as Philips Hue intelligent bulbs, Honeywell air purifiers, including door and window sensors, power supplies, smart devices and so on, to buy a full range of smart devices and programs, for users to move a hundred thousand of to millions of price is still expensive.

4. Pseudo-Intelligent function

In addition to intelligent hardware, smart home is the key to the current intelligent products to provide users with a single, fragmented information and data integration, through software support, data interaction, cloud interaction to achieve powerful functions for the user's life to bring convenience, change its life. But the current smart home products are not around the home, but around the security, lighting control, or based on home products, most simply add voice, remote and other simple control, does not form a true sense of intelligence. At present, more intelligent products are still not draw, brand uneven also lead to product quality and intelligence functions vary widely.

Three, single price war vs one-stop service

The Intelligent WiFi module for the traditional home products is also one of the ways for the platform business to expand its partners. Millet said, 22 yuan of smart home solutions for traditional home appliances to solve the intelligent problem, and said within a year cost reduction of 15 yuan, within 2 years to 10 yuan. According to an electrical appliance enterprise to Sohu it revealed that the Beijing East has reduced the scheme to 10 yuan, do not rule out the price of millet will further pull down.

And Baidu is for traditional manufacturers to provide more cost-effective software, Baidu related officials said, "the light bulb plus a WiFi module, so that it can be connected to the network, through the mobile phone to control, this operation users whether to buy?" From the open bulb again through the phone unlock, and finally open the application, but also directly open the switch. "It is reported that Baidu this set of smart home software platform to reduce the overall cost of intelligent hardware."

Tencent said that its QQ platform currently supports WiFi, Bluetooth, GSM, ZigBee, Z and other ways to connect, from the bottom and chip manufacturers, equipment manufacturers and system manufacturers to cooperate, directly to the SDK to write to smart devices, reducing the development costs of partners and users of learning costs, Mobile phones Find hardware, identify hardware, and connect hardware that are unusually simple.

(Responsible editor: Lvguang)