PoWering The SmarT home of The fuTure
The application and launch of smart homes are coming into the global spotlight. In January at CES, Amazon and Google attracted the public with virtual assistants and smart speakers. In March at AWE, Haier’s exclusive release of its All-Scenario Smart Home Solution marked a new high for the smart home market.
While these three giants currently dominate the market, others are set to join them in growing the global smart home industry to a new level. According to Juniper Research, a market research organization, the smart home market will generate $195 billion in revenue by 2021.
Google And Amazon Dominate The U.S. Smart Home Market With Virtual Assistants
American brands are the pioneers in the overall smart home market. Google and Amazon rely on the platform advantages created by smart speakers to maintain dominance of the U.S. market. Amazon’s Echo series and Google Home account for 69% and 25% of the market, respectively.
Amazon entered the game in November 2014 with Alexa, its intelligent virtual assistant, as its core strategy, with its Alexa voice-enabled Echo speakers designed to be the smart hub of the family. As of the end of June 2017, Alexa offered more than 15,000 features.
Google joined Amazon in the market in November 2016, after spending $3.2 billion to acquire smart home startup Nest. Despite its two-year lag time behind Amazon, Google has been quick to catch up. With the intelligent Google Assistant as its core voice, the AI-powered Google Home Smart Speaker functions as the hub through which Google’s application-offering services can be integrated.
As tech companies, Amazon and Google have set the bar high with their applications; yet, like all AI companies, they suffer from the need to partner with hardware manufacturers. Whether smart services can evolve from smart speakers to all-scenario solutions will ultimately depend on the platform’s ability to attract enough support from manufacturers.
Haier Brings New Ideas To Global Smart Home Industry With All-Scenario Services
Another pioneer in the sector is Haier, whose main goal is to enable 360-degree smart family living. During this year’s AWE, Haier released an all-scenario customized smart package, based on four physical spaces, including kitchens, living rooms and bedrooms, and seven full-house solutions, including air and water. Any smart needs of users at home, such as clothes, food, housing, entertainment, etc., can be fulfilled at once.
Haier — unlike Google and Amazon — is an appliance manufacturer, and as such it has a natural hardware advantage. In fact, according to Euromonitor International Limited, Haier has been the world’s number one major appliances brand for nine consecutive years, with a 10.5% market share. As a leader in refrigerators, washing machines and AC, Haier offers countless possibilities for setting up the smart home scene.
As early as 2014, Haier began building the world’s first smart life operation platform, U+, which consists of smart air, diet, water, security, health and entertainment ecosystems. Through the platform, consumers can access real-time information about their home appliances via a dedicated app on their mobile device.
Linking everything together is the essence of the IoT age. For smart homes, it requires full-house intelligence. Amazon and Google have opened the door to the infinite possibilities of a smart hub-enabled home, while Haier is bringing to life the fully integrated, optimized smart home.
As the global smart home industry is poised on the brink of incredible growth, be on the lookout for many incredible ideas and technologies to come from Amazon, Google, Haier and a host of other new players.