Under the background of enterprises relying more on technology, all enterprises are seeking new development opportunities. As one of the most important new technological revolutions in human history, the industry has given positive comments on the incremental dividend and innovation space it has brought to the industry. So when the concept of intelligent hardware rose, a large number of enterprises sprang up one after another, and the manufacturing of intelligent hardware became a trend.
Up to now, many players have flooded into the domestic smart hardware circuit, and many domestic Internet enterprises have joined the army of grabbing the smart hardware market. Among them, the search field, known as the “hotbed of artificial intelligence”, is particularly concerned by the industry.
Software giants also have a hardware dream
Baidu with “multiple measures”
Looking at the players in the entire intelligent hardware market, Baidu can definitely rank the first in this field, which is not unrelated to its strategy of “taking multiple measures at the same time”. Over the years, Baidu has continued to focus on living rooms, cars, individuals and even education, and has developed a variety of intelligent hardware products, such as small at home, small smart speakers, small voice car support, and formed a complete intelligent hardware product line.
And intelligent hardware has also accelerated the rapid implementation of Baidu AI technology. Baidu has been deeply involved in the field of artificial intelligence for many years, and with years of technological investment and improved layout, its technical strength in the field of intelligent hardware has always been at the forefront of the industry. Baidu has achieved a high degree of integration of software and hardware technologies by developing intelligent hardware, not only expanding the intelligent voice interaction market, but also helping Baidu AI technology accelerate its implementation, which is conducive to creating a prosperous AI ecosystem.
In addition, Baidu attaches great importance to smart hardware because the traffic dividend has reached its peak, and smart hardware can help it open up new user growth space. Since the development of the internet, online dividends have almost disappeared. With the increasing cost of customer acquisition and the limited diversion ability of other products, Baidu’s advantage as a search engine continues to shrink. As the forms of intelligent hardware become increasingly diverse, more and more scenarios are targeted, and more and more users are covered. Baidu can use hardware to extend software services to the user level, and further enhance user stickiness by developing hardware.
In addition, Baidu Fali’s intelligent hardware also aims to seize the entrance to the Internet of Things. In the internet war, the most mentioned thing is “entrance”, and seizing an entrance is equivalent to seizing users. Baidu first made a difference in the field of intelligent hardware, also out of the consideration of seizing entry points. After all, every intelligent hardware product corresponds to a new life scenario. In this enclosure movement, Baidu can only have a greater say in future competition by covering more application scenarios.
Adhere to the “original intention” of 360
In addition to Baidu, there are 360 who also bet on the treasure here. As an Internet security service provider that has worked in the Internet industry for many years, 360’s advantages are self-evident. Powerful smart hardware is also an active attempt by 360 to transfer the concept of “security” from online to offline.
On the one hand, developing new intelligent hardware services can achieve the goal of “supporting software with hardware”. As the overall search advertising market shrinks, 360’s main source of revenue – internet advertising and service revenue – continues to be affected. Therefore, 360 urgently needs to develop new businesses to support stable performance growth. With the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology, the intelligence of search engines has become an inevitable trend. Therefore, intelligent hardware has become the most suitable choice for 360.
Nowadays, when selling hardware products, many hardware companies often bind many free software to increase the application of software with the help of hardware. This approach is also applicable to software companies. 360 can also build its own service ecosystem by producing intelligent hardware and binding self-developed software.
On the other hand, intelligent hardware can also accelerate the construction of 360 intelligent scenes. Thanks to its deep accumulation in software and reasonable layout in hardware, the ecosystem of 360 software and hardware has been successfully built. With the accelerated integration of 360 in software and hardware, 360 will form more powerful computing power, acquire more sufficient data, give more possibilities to intelligent scenes, and bring more imagination space for its scenarioization.
Sogou focuses on “voice”
With the rapid development of artificial intelligence, Sogou has also had to accelerate its layout in intelligent hardware. However, compared to Baidu and 360, Sogou’s layout appears particularly “focused”. Thanks to years of accumulation of voice and text, Sogou seems to have launched a “voice” intelligent hardware product.
Firstly, intelligent hardware is an important component of Sogou’s future strategic layout. The speech recognition system supported by powerful database and algorithm capabilities has given Sogou great confidence in intelligent hardware manufacturing. For example, intelligent hardware products such as travel translation treasures and recording translation pens produced by Sogou Collection Technology have not only gained widespread recognition from users, but also accumulated a certain level of reputation in the market.
It is with such accumulation that Sogou can form advantages in intelligent interaction and service experience. Taking this as a breakthrough point, Sogou’s subsequent intelligent hardware products with “language” as the core can once again reproduce its past achievements and expand its strategic landscape.
Secondly, Sogou’s revenue continues to decline. It needs to find new growth curves, and smart hardware can help it improve its “revenue generating” capabilities. Sogou recently released its first quarter financial report for 2021, showing a year-on-year decrease of 47% in revenue. Prior to this, Sogou’s revenue had significantly declined for several consecutive fiscal quarters, and its business focus needed to shift. Therefore, it is particularly important to shift to intelligent hardware at this time.
Artificial intelligence ecosystem of software and hardware
The eyes of giants are always strikingly similar. Just as internet giants have laid out community group buying earlier, search engine giants have also embarked on the path of intelligent hardware. However, the fact that search engine companies are laying out intelligent hardware is closely related to their intention to build an AI ecosystem that combines software and hardware.
Firstly, creating an artificial intelligence ecosystem that combines software and hardware will accelerate the commercialization of enterprise technology. With the development of the internet entering a mature period, the traditional internet profit model has reached a bottleneck, and exploring new profit models is becoming increasingly difficult. If internet services are integrated into hardware, their value can be further explored. In addition, with the development of technology and the upgrading of consumption, the upgrading of hardware products will be faster and faster, and the profits of the intelligent hardware market will be very considerable. The combination of software and hardware will help enterprises maximize their profits. https://forum.stoneitech.com/
Secondly, building an AI ecosystem that combines software and hardware will help enterprises form stronger competition barriers. Both single hardware and software are easy to be copied. A large number of homogeneous products on the market today are a powerful manifestation of the development dilemma of the entire industry. The integration of software and hardware involves a more complex industrial chain, requires a longer production cycle, and it is relatively more difficult to copy. Therefore, the combination of software and hardware will have higher technical barriers than the single business. This invisible barrier will also help enterprises block many competitors who want to enter this field.
Today, with the rapid development of science and technology, giants from all walks of life are accelerating the construction of their own enterprise moat. With more and more players competing for entry, the competition in the field of intelligent hardware will only become more intense. For a number of Internet enterprises, how to combine their own advantages to stand out from the fierce competition has become a difficult problem to be solved in front of each enterprise. From this perspective, the search giants may provide a good new perspective for them to enter the industry through the layout of intelligent hardware.
