Within 3 to 5 years, smart homes may become a standard feature in mainstream residences. Perhaps soon, configuring smart homes will be as natural as turning on water, electricity, and gas during home renovations. This is the optimistic estimate from some smart home industry insiders.
Data released by relevant organizations shows that the national smart home market will reach 180 billion yuan by 2018. Will smart homes become widespread?
Smart Home
Huge market potential
"A survey shows that over 90% of respondents are interested in smart homes, and most of those interested can afford to spend 15% of their home renovation budget on smart features." At the 2016 Internet+ Home Renovation Business Model Innovation Summit held recently, smart homes became a frequently mentioned term in the industry. Yang Wenbing, Chairman of the Provincial Smart Home Industry Technology Innovation Strategic Alliance, stated that consumption upgrading is a current trend, consumers have huge overall purchasing potential, and are gradually showing a shift away from solely pursuing low prices, instead focusing more on product quality and service experience.
Currently, Hefei's smart home market is still in its early stages, with a relatively small overall size, but its future potential is enormous. According to the "2013-2018 China Smart Home Industry Development Dynamics and Investment Potential Research and Analysis Report" released by China Industry Information Network, the annual growth rate of China's smart home market was 20% from 2006 to 2011, and it is projected to reach approximately 25% annually from 2012 to 2020. The "China Smart Home Market Special Research Report" indicates that thanks to the increasing number of smart home hardware products on the market and the growing consumer adoption, the Chinese smart home market size will see significant growth in 2016. By 2018, smart home products will be accepted by the consumer market, and the market size will reach 180 billion RMB. Industry insiders say that 2014 was the first year of the domestic smart home boom, with international internet giants, domestic appliance companies, IT companies, and e-commerce companies all making high-profile entries into the smart home market. Currently, the bottleneck in the development of smart homes lies in providing an excellent and practical user experience. It can be said that ease of operation and an exceptional user experience will be key to the future rise of smart home brands. The smart home market is currently in its development stage, and the industry will only enter a growth phase in the next 10 years.
Boost popularity
The "pain points" need to be addressed.
While the prospects are huge, there isn't much actual demand for it at present. Among these factors, cost-effectiveness has become the biggest pain point.
Yang Wenbing told reporters that a relatively complete smart home system, including standard remote control of lights, appliances, and electric curtains, multi-room background music and video sharing, security alarms, and network video monitoring, would cost at least 20,000 to 30,000 yuan using domestic brands. A complete smart home system, with domestic options ranging from 30,000 to 100,000 yuan, and imported systems costing hundreds of thousands or even millions of yuan, is another reason why smart homes are not yet widely adopted. This is related to the high cost of smart homes due to high-tech research and development and small-scale production, and is also a major reason why smart homes are not yet widely available. Furthermore, during construction, smart homes require a series of integrated wiring, complex system setup, installation, and debugging, which also consumes considerable manpower and costs.
While there are affordable smart home devices on the market, their stability is low and their user experience is lacking. The quality of these devices varies greatly, and there is a serious problem of homogenization. Many smart home products offer numerous functions, but these functions are not easy to operate. Many users have found that most smart home products are not very practical after using them. This fails to achieve the expected results of smart homes, making it difficult to gain consumer acceptance. Furthermore, currently, inconsistent standards and chaotic communication protocols also limit the development of the smart home industry. Smart home manufacturers are essentially operating independently, lacking a unified standard and resulting in incompatibility. The lack of product stability and coordination also hinders the development of the smart home market to some extent.
Security experts have stated that smart homes, as a relatively new technology, still have many shortcomings in terms of network security, device security, system security, data storage, and privacy security. A previous study found hundreds of security vulnerabilities in ten popular smart home devices, including televisions, webcams, remote-controlled sockets, door locks, home alarms, and garage door remote switches.
Smart Home
Unified standards are urgently needed
Yang Wenbing stated that the smart home industry is currently developing rapidly, with various manufacturers vying for market share. However, the smart home industry should slow down, focusing on quality before pursuing quantity.
Currently, smart homes are more like interconnected homes, and their true intelligence still falls short of the public's expectations. From a product perspective, both hardware and software urgently need innovation; unnecessary or rarely used functions should be simplified to improve the user experience. For the industry itself, interoperability is crucial, and a standardized benchmark is needed to unify products, interfaces, and technologies. However, domestic standards are inconsistent and lack a unified approach. Therefore, it is imperative that the government, industry associations, and businesses collaborate to develop a unified standard for smart homes.
Furthermore, senior analyst Wu Qiang stated that in the internet era, the home renovation industry needs to integrate user needs and form an ecosystem. Companies need to collaborate with other equally excellent companies to "build an ecosystem," connecting and ensuring compatibility across all these devices to achieve "a single entry point where users can choose all the brands they are currently using." For example, interconnectivity can be established among renovation companies, hotel channels, and real estate channels, accelerating the implementation of smart solutions through cooperation. Reporters have learned that many smart home companies in Hefei have already partnered with real estate developers, and smart home features can be seen in the model rooms of several residential projects in Hefei. Some developers are choosing to equip some of their products with smart home features to enhance the value of their projects, and the ongoing upgrade and transformation of the residential market also presents opportunities for smart homes.
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