Intelligent hardware refers to emerging internet terminal products that can collect information, achieve intelligent perception, interaction, big data services, and other functions. It is an important carrier of “Internet plus+AI”. After the realization of intelligence in terminal products such as mobile phones and televisions, information technology is also transforming traditional devices through the combination of software and hardware, making them intelligent.
Recently, the Prospective Industry Research Institute released a report on the current situation and development trend of China’s intelligent hardware industry in 2018, which analyzed the intelligent hardware products in China’s smart home, wearable devices, intelligent transportation, health care, and other small and micro fields in addition to this, and made an in-depth interpretation of its development characteristics, industry and market status, and discussed the relevant development trends. The author has combed the report to a certain extent, and made some extended discussions around the relevant arguments for the reference of the industry.
The domestic market space is huge, and the industry growth rate is higher than that of the world
From 2014 to 2015, China’s intelligent hardware industry underwent early incubation and development, and began to diversify its product categories, resulting in an overall explosive growth trend in the industry. Data shows that the market size of five major categories of intelligent hardware products, including smart homes, wearable devices, intelligent transportation, and healthcare, has increased from 10.83 billion yuan in 2014 to over 73 billion yuan in 2017, And the data is also growing rapidly at a level higher than the global growth rate.
The analysis report found that as of 2017, the smart home hardware industry had the largest market share, accounting for 35.70% of the total scale of the smart hardware industry; Next is intelligent wearable devices, accounting for 20.80%; The proportion of transportation intelligent hardware and intelligent medical hardware is relatively small, at 11.70% and 5.50%, respectively. Compared to 2017, it is expected that the market share of home intelligent hardware, transportation intelligent hardware, and medical intelligent hardware will increase in 2019, while the market share of intelligent wearable devices will decrease.
Market share of five types of products
As the main segmented market for smart hardware in China, smart home hardware has maintained significant growth in recent years. In 2017, the scale of the smart home hardware market reached 26.1 billion yuan. In the future, with the progress of technology and the further cultivation of consumer habits, smart home products will be increasingly favored by the consumer market.
Wearable devices, as an important component of the intelligent hardware field, are currently in a transitional stage from concept to commercialization. The product forms of wearable devices mainly include smart glasses, helmets, watches, bracelets, etc. By connecting to the internet and combining various software applications, users can perceive and monitor their physiological condition and surrounding environment. Currently, most wearable devices are transitioning from concept to commercialization, and their penetration rate is gradually increasing. As internet giants and technology companies join the wearable device industry, the promotion and user penetration of wearable devices will rise to another level.
With the continuous development of artificial intelligence and other technologies in the industry, combined with specific industry application scenarios and different forms of integration, healthcare and transportation have become the two most promising important fields. Against the backdrop of accelerating urbanization, intelligent transportation has gained policy incentives and broad prospects; The health equipment market is a mixed bag, requiring standardization and unification. Smart healthcare, which provides value-added services for health, has also received attention. In the long run, the healthcare and transportation sectors will achieve significant growth breakthroughs, increasing their market share in the intelligent hardware field, and squeezing the relatively slow growing wearable device market share.
Industry competition intensifies, and development models will usher in new changes
As of now, the domestic intelligent hardware circuit has been filled with a large number of players, especially with the entry of giants such as BAT, Xiaomi, and JD.com, the competition on this circuit is becoming increasingly fierce. Based on different enterprise positioning, these players
It can be roughly divided into the following three categories:
Comprehensive ecological services.
Tencent open platform, Xiaomi Group and other institutions, based on their own supply chain background, provide users with one-stop services or partially packaged solution services. https://www.stoneitech.com/ other
Starting companies based on the founder’s background delve into the research and development and manufacturing of software and hardware products in vertical scenarios, exploring new development opportunities.
In the same market context, three types of players compete on the same platform based on different conditions and business models, gradually exploring new development models and breakthroughs.
Taking Xiaomi Group, which successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in July this year, as an example, the company has gradually entered the field of intelligent hardware through the mobile ecosystem, using Xiaomi Box as the entry point, becoming the world’s largest intelligent hardware IoT platform. Xiaomi drew inspiration from the free business model created by 360 Company and explored the “Iron Man” business model based on hardware, internet, and new retail, achieving great success.
In addition, with the rich and diverse innovative intelligent hardware, open channels, humanized intelligence, vertical differentiation and other characteristics, some institutions have made significant breakthroughs in the development of the hardware industry by combining with segmented markets, rapidly integrating and deepening. Section.
The report predicts that by 2018, the sales market size of the above-mentioned five types of intelligent hardware products in China will reach 85 billion yuan, and by 2020, it will exceed 100 billion yuan; The annual compound growth rate from 2017 to 2023 is approximately 16.5%. According to this growth rate, the total industrial scale is expected to reach 170.4 billion yuan by 2023.
Expected market size of five types of intelligent hardware in the next six years
Currently, there are many issues that need to be addressed in the intelligent hardware industry:
From the perspective of standardization in the intelligent hardware industry, the intelligent hardware ecosystem needs to introduce organic norms from “primitive growth” to “mature development”. Through standard guidance, protecting user rights and interests, regulating the market, promoting “internal drive” through “external drive”, and promoting intelligent hardware manufacturers to continuously improve product quality, maintenance quality, and service quality.
From the perspective of relevant technical standards of intelligent hardware, many products are incompatible with each other, the protocol ports used are different, and the whole industry is seriously fragmentation. For incompatible intelligent hardware, due to the high cost of replacement or separate use, the user’s enthusiasm will be greatly reduced. Due to different formats, data between different brands cannot be shared.
Driven by the trend of consumer upgrading and accelerated urbanization, with the influx of large internet institutions such as BAT and a large amount of capital, the intensification of industry competition will result in the extraction of a group of high-quality entrepreneurs and technicians. Subsequently, with the initial formation of consumer awareness, the intelligent hardware market gradually matured and had broad prospects.
