If the "smart router" era really comes

Make a hypothesis that if one day the water company also liberalized the introduction of competition, in order to preempt users they launched a "smart faucet", if it is from the competitor's tap water, "sorry incompatible" and then automatically shielded off. As a user, are you going to freak out?

Although this kind of thing sounds a little impossible, but in fact, this kind of thing is continuing on the Internet: if the anti-virus software can be shielded by the competition or KO the competitor's client, the input method can directly give the result and bypass the search engine, the video search can be built into the competitor's video source.

If you don't pinch someone's throat, others will pinch you--the Internet competition has become more and more "pure".

As another round of "smart router", it is not "the name of the user", to others in advance of the next "life and Death character"?

Smart?—— a gimmick called subversion

From portals to search, from Web sites to browsers, internet companies have never stopped chasing portals, and their "entrance" battles have been moving forward.

Today, they are looking at the joints of the home Internet--routers. Well, it's really a big entrance, and once you've got multiple forks in software and client entrances, you have to go through here. Even without the greatest victory, occupy at least part of the mountain, leaving a tempo.

At present, Baidu, Millet, 360, Shanda and other internet giants, will be released intelligent wireless router products, in addition to a new role "polar route."

From the reason and selling point of their propaganda, as always, "because of the user's name", such as: Before the routing set complex Enough "fool", can be screened video site ads, intelligent application expansion, equipped with batteries not afraid of power outages, different equipment, better synergy between, etc., to "subvert" the existing router market.

However, it all looks beautiful, the router market is really as they expected it?

1, routers and mobile phone is a good business? According to the data released by the Ministry of Public Information earlier this year, the domestic fixed broadband Internet access users have reached 175 million households. This means that these users already have similar devices. Of course, the natural impairment of products and wireless equipment proliferation, so that some people to actively update the equipment, the number is bound to be limited.

Data show that the current router market about 500~600 million per month shipments. In this calculation, one year shipments of about 60 million units. This is not the same as the current mobile phone market, and with the demographic dividend reduction, and personal network equipment update completed, the new demand will be significantly reduced.

2, "intelligent" to how much to stimulate the new demand? Intelligent routing may be easy to set in the preliminary, but it has a threshold to use, just like the current smartphone status. Although the traditional router although the initial setting is not compatible, but once set up the user does not need to be more than tube.

And the current Internet companies to promote the "smart router" selling point, more to please users but does not form a technical threshold, traditional router manufacturers can do. Just so, the user needs more money to buy the core function of the "intelligence", the author around the small partners do a small survey, the replacement of the current router function is not so strong.

Entry forward?—— destined to be the wrong start.

Yes, for these internet companies, the meaning is "entrance", perhaps they will replicate the Internet "free" mode or the mobile phone market "contract" mode, soft and hard to combine to reconstruct the router market.

However, in the author's opinion, as a network infrastructure, it is not suitable to join too many "positions". The desire to compete in the entrance, how crazy the next play. As the beginning says, the world is littered with water and power companies that shield themselves through smart taps and smart switches.

And most Internet companies, given their various performance in the PC market ... That's enough!

Technically, "smart" can mean more vulnerabilities and exploitable rules, potentially more likely to be abused or maliciously attacked.

It is not difficult to imagine these scenes, in the "smart router" era may occur, enumerating several complementary brain holes:

1, the user is normal access to the Internet, suddenly the router force in the User interface pop-up a window: Your router system has been X days have not updated, now monitoring the existence of n loopholes, please put on a patch, so that you realize its "sense of existence."

2, often give you the force to recommend a plug-in or application, not enough to download.

3, with powerful memory, you can record the user's internet behavior, become "large data" mining "source", in your brush Weibo or chat, timely to recommend a variety of products, "you have n users or friends around the purchase of this" is more than a cookie to be useful.

4, because the Internet company and XX War, not only the PC end, the mobile phone side shielding each other, the router "nuclear weapons" began to activate-sorry, you visit the site there is XX risk, for your information security, will be forced to close.

5, or, River Lake again came "xx Intelligent router leaked user privacy" ...

The above is only based on the current Internet company's "habits" and imagined that looks absurd but not impossible.

Of course, not "smart router" is useless, which passed some ideas to improve the user experience on the traditional router or a lot of reference, but the author does not advocate the use of the World War Internet companies "admission", both when the athletes and when the referee, ultimately damaged or ordinary users.

For example, some of the so-called "subversive" innovation, but some are not willing to touch the business code: such as shielding video site ads, such as the exhaustion of the river and fishing movements, will inevitably affect the entire industry's basic ecology.

And when the rules are destroyed, I believe that in a very long time, telecom operators, such as also joined the "Buy Road" game: direct control of each network port, charging high protection fees can be released-presumably, we have not dared to think down ...

Author: @ Third Eye micro-letter public account: Thirdsight