The new round of "enclosure movement" of smart home starts

“There are two things that people no longer feel amazed at. One is that some people sell their stocks and stocks go. Second, some people have to do mobile phones.” This is a piece of the industry circulating. In spite of this, in early May 2015, following Gree’s announcement of its entry into the mobile phone market, Liu Tibin, general manager of Changhong and chairman of Changhong Communications, announced: “The world is so big, the mobile phone market is so big, Changhong is going to have a look!” Traditional home appliance companies Are there soaring "machinery movements" that really can change the market pattern?

Appliance companies have all made mobile phones. When Gree announced it as a mobile phone in early 2015, the industry had called out too suddenly. In fact, it is not new for home appliance companies to do mobile phones, and the enterprises involved in home appliances are far more than Gree. Companies such as Haier, Hisense, and Changhong have been involved in the mobile phone market a few years ago. However, the mobile phone services of these companies have not been able to set off a storm in China. Until now, people suddenly realize that the original home appliance companies can also make mobile phones. This is really what the industry has done. Pay attention.

On March 18 of this year, Dong Mingzhu suddenly revealed the Gree mobile phone when attending the event. Then the Internet also exposed information such as the configuration of Gree mobile phones. It is understood that Gree mobile phone design by Shanghai Longqi, Shenzhen Zhuo wing technology foundry. The phone uses Qualcomm processor, Ophelia's camera, front camera is 5 million pixels, rear camera is 13 million pixels. This mobile phone has a built-in remote control chip that can control home appliances through the mobile phone App. Gree plans to sell 100 million units in the future.

Yi Yi Consulting Group CEO Zhang Yi told the media that since 2014, the Internet has subverted every industry with unstoppable momentum, and has affected the transformation and development of the global home appliance industry. In this situation, China's home appliance companies began to actively embrace the Internet and broke into the smart home sector. "Geli's mobile phone is based on its own strategy, using mobile phones as a smart terminal to achieve a diversified transformation, and even to achieve a smart home ecology layout. Similarly, Changhong and Haier announced their re-entering the mobile phone industry, but also for industrial diversification."

Liu Tibin believes that Changhong already has relatively complete product camps such as TVs, refrigerators, air conditioners, and small home appliances. This is an Internet company such as Xiaomi and LeTV. It is also an advantage that Huawei, ZTE and other communication companies do not have in the ecosystem of the Internet of Things.

Competing for smart home entrance Many people in the industry believe that when Internet companies such as LeTV and Xiaomi have exerted efforts in hardware fields such as smart TVs and mobile phones, the home appliance giants have announced that they will return to the mobile phone industry and turn from defenses to proactive attacks, whether they are home appliances. For manufacturers or Internet companies, this round of action is a resource grab for both parties, and it is also a battle for users.

In the new round of competition, home appliance companies hope to take the differentiated competition route and regain their favorable position. For example, Changhong claims to launch "the world's first" healthy mobile phone H1 that monitors blood sugar, blood lipids and cholesterol. Liu Tibin said that in addition to the hardware experience provided by Changhong mobile phones to consumers, more important is the application and services based on the Internet of Things. It is reported that the sales target of Changhong H1 in 2016 is 5 million.

Gree’s goal is more clear. In Gree’s 2014 annual report, the mobile phone business was accurately described: “GREE mobile phones will be available soon as a carrier for linking and controlling smart home appliances. Gree will first compete for the smart home entrance and become a platform for connecting various home appliances and collecting data. Helping users keep an eye on the operating status of home appliances, and eventually achieve the goal of remote visualization control. In the future, they can also enter the field of big data services.

Liu Buchen, a marketing expert, told the media that currently mobile phone competition has become fierce, and mobile phone companies are under tremendous pressure. Household appliances companies have advantages and disadvantages when they make mobile phones. The advantage is that they can build an ecosystem with their own other products and use stickiness to attract existing consumers. The disadvantage is that home appliance companies do not have much success in making mobile phones. For example, Changhong has to face the issue of aging brands, and how to attract emerging consumer groups is very important.

Internet of Things mobile phones are not "magic soldiers"

Although home appliance companies respected their IoT mobile phones, the IDC global mobile phone quarter tracking report published by IDC, the market research organization, showed that in the first quarter, China’s smartphone shipments were around 98 million. The year-on-year decrease was 4.3%. This is the first year-on-year decline in the Chinese smartphone market in six years. IDC China President Huo Jinjie said that the gradual saturation of the Chinese smartphone market is the underlying reason for the slowdown in the market.
Then, the home appliance companies can fully introduce the Internet of Things mobile phone to achieve a real breakthrough in the smart phone slowdown? "A lot of manufacturers once again poured into the mobile phone market to push new products, the current mobile software services are mostly developed by third-party service providers Operation, the major mobile phone manufacturers have little difference in this regard." Zhang Yi said.

According to Wang Yanhui, secretary-general of the China Mobile Alliance, it is almost impossible for home appliance companies to enter the first-line camp of the mobile phone market. “It is possible for home appliance companies to rely on previously established sales channels to achieve a certain amount of sales, but now there are few opportunities for new brands. In the past five years, it has been only millet that the new mobile phone brands have entered the mainstream of the Chinese market. A. "Wang Yanhui said.

Liang Zhenpeng, an expert in home appliances, said that he believes that Gree, as a single-product air-conditioning manufacturing company, will have more advantages in the fields of refrigerators, washing machines, and small household appliances, because the industry span is relatively small. However, at present, household appliances enterprises respected the Internet of Things mobile phones, enterprises are still in the rush to the stage, Gree and Changhong and other companies to build their own smart ecosystem is still a difficult way to go.

Smart homes use advanced computer technology, network communication technology, medical electronics technology, etc. According to the basic principles of ergonomics, various subsystems related to home life are organically combined, and many smart appliances can be controlled through the Internet of Things. . In the mobile phone, the corresponding password of the smart home appliance system is input, and the use program is opened, so that the control of the home appliance through the mobile phone can be realized.

With the development of technology, the function of IoT mobile phones has gradually gone beyond “connection and control”. For example, Changhong IoT mobile phone will integrate the functions of real-time monitoring of blood glucose and cholesterol into mobile phones. After a simple blood sample collection operation, the test paper is directly inserted into the test interface of the mobile phone, and a dedicated sensor can be used for testing, and a related App is used to generate and record the test data.