Zeo, this winter, smart hardware will die a large number of?

Yesterday and a well-known industry angel investor and great god chat, talk about intelligent hardware start-up, there is a common feeling, it is winter.

From Google glasses began to blow up the smart hardware gale, through the 2013 years and 2014 of brewing, almost become a tornado, entrepreneurial words will be called intelligent hardware, chat will talk about hardware entrepreneurship, meeting must have hardware links, a large number of intelligent hardware products, from small teams to big companies are unusually active, it is barbaric growth.

Plus app is smart, there's no market.

All kinds of hardware products dubbed "smart" have already occupied a place. Intelligent hand ring, water cup, glasses, intelligent toilet, cabinet, toilet, curtains, faucets, shower room, drying racks, sofas ... As if the home life of the size of objects, and "smart home" to rub that point edge. New hardware products are visible on a daily basis in the global Pozible website.

Is intelligence really like this? Consumers will not pay. Before, fierce technology has been reported, smart home product start-up company Viva Labs CEO and co-founder Henrik-Hollom (Henrik Holen) that the design of a satisfactory smart home products should comply with the "four principles": Do not seek user interaction, so that users are masters, Improve products and share with users.

And the domestic entrepreneurial team, the intelligent understanding is undoubtedly "control", with mobile phone door, with mobile phone control curtains, with mobile phone to see the temperature and so on.

What is the future of intelligence? Take smart home For example, when I leave home, the heating device will automatically turn off, the lights will be automatically extinguished, the burglar alarm will automatically open. All these things that I had to remember before, are now automatically done by intelligent products. In the busy life, these small things can help users worry is not small, we believe that this is the future of smart home.

The water is deep, and success is definitely escape.

In the male song, it is much more complicated to do intelligent hardware than the app development class. From industrial design to, software development, cloud services set up, open mold, sales, this kind of start-up costs high, long time, profitability difficult to predict, and related to the supply chain and sales channel system, these two thresholds are grassroots start-up companies can not exceed, even 360 , Ali, Baidu such large companies are still helpless.

Specifically, hardware industry is different from software, although the factory's highly developed, so that developers only need to do a good job in the design, but if not to form a scale, the supply chain may not support (see the old hammer you know), the supply chain does not support, the cost of the product will be high, This is also the main reason why early smart devices sell at a high price.

And when the Giants enter these markets, hardware free or low-cost sales, smart device prices are constantly pulling low, entrepreneurs do not have enough research and development funds, cash flow is not guaranteed, at the same time financing on the existence of huge problems, failure has become a very common phenomenon.

The market is still early, the channel has not been through

Look at the market again, in two ways, one is the huge potential demand, for example, pay attention to air quality of air monitoring, remove haze, air purification, seemingly are tens of billions of market; but on the other hand, the average consumer is not strong, one is the high price of products, operation inconvenience, the real mass market is far from being activated.

One side is the continuous speculation, what the public and the first, on the other hand is the lack of online sales, offline sales simply do not have the ability. In the recent fierce technology collection of 40 smart hardware products, launched the "Geek Bus" experience, the hope that through the display and experience, so that more people know the intelligent hardware, experience and purchase. Indeed, we also see huge market demand, but where do consumers go to buy?

Traditional offline sales channels into very high, it is difficult to imagine that the general start-up companies do not have the ability to do. In this kind of market environment, even get the financing of the team also adhere to less than a year, not to mention the entrepreneurial team.

Without a burst of money behind that is no innovation

Although the smart hardware every day has a new out, but two years later, really want to say that the product industry and the user's recognition, sales breakthrough into a burst, male song tell you, sorry, three words "really do not".

As early as May, the male song in the circle of friends to bask in a picture, Taobao search on the smart hand ring, well-known and unknown hand ring brand up to hundreds of species, the appearance of the design is difficult to see the difference, the core function is the same. For many people, the purpose of entrepreneurship has not been to create, but with the use of smart equipment, using the consumer's taste of the psychological to replicate the hardware, they do not care about product experience, there is demand is enough.

Constantly introducing new products, is the way out or dead end?

Front male Song said a bunch of smart hardware entrepreneurial difficulties, but the advantages of hardware entrepreneurship is also some, is once the product out of sales force, you can immediately stop, do new products. This also led to many teams, especially the team to get money, and constantly introduce seemingly "industrial chain" of products.

Of course, the predecessor of this routine is Apple, and China's millet, in fact, in addition to the mobile phone, millet, after the introduction of new products, except 48 yuan can be bought under a bridge in Beijing mobile power supply, sales are basically very bleak.

This may be an inevitable choice, from Hangzhou's domestic smart home products leading brand Broadlink this year is also a new product, they hope that through the introduction of intelligent single for the DNA platform to provide products for the foundation, the construction of ecosystems. In addition to the smart socket SP Mini,broadlink also launched Intelligent remote Control Rm-home and Rm-pro, will also launch a WiFi speakers, baby detection cameras, smart smoke detectors, intelligent door locks, such as expansion of product lines.

Perhaps, each industry needs such from chaos to clear process, the portal era passed, the old sank away, Hundred Regiment war passed, the United States to stay, hardware winter came, who will stay?