It seems that players from different fields are setting up their own positions, but in fact they are players competing on the same track. Whether traditional home appliance companies strive to seize mobile phones as the core entrance to smart homes, or mobile phone manufacturers actively expand home appliance categories, creating their own IoT (Internet of Things) ecosystem is their ultimate goal.

Can producing mobile phones help home appliance companies eliminate "prospect anxiety"? What is the key for mobile phone manufacturers to break through in the IoT track?

Gree exposes folding machine technology. Why do “Dong Mingzhu” insist on making mobile phones?

On February 5, Zhuhai Gree Electric Co., Ltd. applied to disclose patent information for "foldable screens and foldable screen mobile terminals". A major feature of this patented technology is that "the left and right screens exist independently, and can be folded and unfolded independently, with relative freedom from each other." This avoids the hinge problem that currently cannot be completely solved by folding mobile phone manufacturers on the market.

In December 2020, Gree’s first 5G mobile phone was launched. The Gree mobile phone was renamed Dasong mobile phone. It uses the Snapdragon 765G processor and is priced from 2,699 yuan. However, the current official sales channel of Dasong Mobile Phones is only the Gree Dong Mingzhu Store e-commerce platform. From its product introduction, it is not difficult to see that Dasong mobile phones have made Gree more distant from selling points such as "intelligent interconnection of all home scenes", "one-click configuration of 5 devices at the same time" and "Gree smart home can be connected through voice assistant or 'Gree' App" The realization of "smart interconnection" is approaching.

In fact, similar to Gree’s mobile phone business path, there are also traditional home appliance companies such as TCL, Hisense, and Konka. For example, Hisense recently launched its first 5G reading phone, the A7 CC version. The ink screen has been upgraded to a 6.7-inch color ink screen. It uses the domestic Unisoc Tiger T7510 5G processor and has a battery life of 4770mAh. It is now officially on sale on the e-commerce platform, with the 6 128GB version priced at 2,399 yuan. Although its large product introduction focuses on the selling point of reading friendliness, AI Mozhi Key still adds a smart factor to this new product.

In January this year, TCL took the 2021 International Consumer Electronics Show as an opportunity to hold a global press conference and released a variety of smart products and comprehensive solutions in the fields of semiconductor display, home appliances and communications. . For overseas markets, TCL has released the new TCL 20 series of mobile phones, including the five latest TCL smartphones in 2021, and has warmed up multi-screen interaction solutions between smartphones, TVs, tablets and laptops, saying it will be committed to Provide users with a more convenient intelligent collaboration experience.

As 5G and IoT technologies become increasingly mature, home appliance companies are even more eager to explore mobile phones. From this, looking back at Dong Mingzhu's previous response to negative comments from the outside world, it seems that we can better understand its meaning. She said that the mobile phone business needs a nurturing process. "Our R&D team is gradually forming and has its own technology. Everyone thinks that it has failed if no one buys it in the market. I don't think so."

OPPO established the Andes Business Unit to accelerate the deployment of mobile phone manufacturers in the IoT

On February 3, OPPO established the Andes Business Department, which is mainly responsible for cloud platforms, data centers and basic technologies. According to reports, OPPO insiders said that independent cloud and big data will improve the services of related mobile products, including video and HeyThings.

HeyThings is a trademark registered by OPPO in the IoT field that debuted in 2019. It includes HeyThings IoT protocol, HeyThings IoT service platform and audio interconnection protocol, respectively, to help ecological partners quickly achieve product access. Provide developers with efficient and convenient hardware intelligent services, and open up the developed audio interconnection protocols and capabilities to realize the interconnection between more third-party smart headphones and OPPO mobile phones.

At the developer conference where HeyThings was unveiled, OPPO also proposed capabilities opening actions for the IoT industry. In the first half of 2020, wearable devices such as OPPO Watch, OPPO bracelet and OPPO Enco three Bluetooth headsets were released one after another, realizing the plan. Smart TVs later launched in the second half of 2020 connected the above-mentioned OPPO Watch and other devices to form an IoT home scene centered on smart TVs.

On one side, home appliance companies are making efforts on the "mobile phone side", and on the other side, mobile phone manufacturers are entering the smart home appliance market. As early as 2013, Xiaomi started to build an ecosystem and insisted on the layout of smart home despite the "ridicule" from the outside world. In 2019, Xiaomi established a major appliances division to develop major appliance categories such as air conditioners, refrigerators, and washing machines, forming head-on competition with Gree, which focuses on the air conditioning business.

The smart TV business that Huawei, Xiaomi, and OPPO have invested heavily in has also put considerable pressure on the core businesses of traditional home appliance companies such as Hisense, TCL, and Konka.

On the one hand, as artificial intelligence, big data, and 5G become more mature and widely used, mobile phones and home appliances are gradually classified into the same category - IoT products. Their mission is to use them at home and in the office. Provide users with a more convenient experience in various scenarios such as travel and travel.

Xiaomi’s IoT product layout can be described as large and comprehensive, and its IoT ecological chain currently covers almost all types of smart hardware. And because Xiaomi's IoT products do not require deep binding to Xiaomi phones and support various systems such as iOS and Android, they provide users with more possibilities in terms of scene experience and product selection.

On the other hand, mobile phone manufacturers cannot slow down in the face of technology iterations and demand upgrades. The deployment of IoT is not only the general trend of the industry, but also the rebirth of enterprises.

For Huawei, it released its smart home strategy in 2015 and launched HUAWEI HiLink, an IoT ecological strategic platform that connects Huawei with its partners. Taking the interconnection construction of software platforms as a breakthrough, Huawei IoT platform realizes interconnection and interoperability among multiple brands.

In March 2019, Huawei officially proposed the "1 8 N" strategy: "1" is the core product mobile phone, which is also the main entrance; "8" includes PCs, tablets, TVs, headphones, and watches 8 major mainstream categories, including auxiliary entrance; "N" refers to the pan-IoT products developed by Huawei and ecological partners. In November 2020, Shan Gang, general manager of Huawei's consumer business Hilink Ecosystem, said: "2020 is the year of the rise of Huawei's IoT ecological business."

IoT distributed portals may be a trend and home appliance companies need to cooperate , Technology companies’ hottest products

According to IDC China’s quarterly mobile phone market tracking report, the top three domestic smartphone manufacturers in terms of market share in 2020 are Huawei, vivo, and OPPO, accounting for 38.3 and 17.7 respectively. and 17.4. Xiaomi and Apple ranked second, while other mobile phones accounted for a market share of 3.5.

Data from the China Industrial Research Institute shows that the global IoT market will exceed one trillion US dollars in 2021, with a compound growth rate of 13.6 from 2017 to 2022, which will become a major driving force for the development of the technology industry in the next few years. The "2018-2019 China Internet of Things Development Annual Report" shows that the scale of China's Internet of Things industry has exceeded 1.2 trillion yuan in 2018, and Internet of Things business revenue increased by 72.9% compared with the previous year.

According to Counterpoint statistics, as of the first quarter of 2020, Xiaomi has invested in more than 300 companies, involving more than 2,000 product SKUs. In 2019, its Internet of Things and daily necessities industries grew 41.7% year-on-year to 62.1 billion yuan, accounting for more than 30% of Xiaomi's total revenue.

“The future must be the era of the Internet of Things, but for home appliance companies, the era of the Internet of Things does not mean that they must make mobile phones.

Some people believe that the real Internet of Things will be entered through distributed portals, that is, every smart home product can become a portal, and users can achieve remote control by issuing instructions to any home appliance product in the home. For example, if you say "turn on the air conditioner" to the refrigerator in the kitchen, the air conditioner in the living room will turn on. "Liu Buchen believes that for home appliance companies, it would be a wiser choice to cooperate with technology companies to enter the IoT field.

OPPO Vice President and President of the Emerging Mobile Terminal Division Liu Bo also pointed out that the current IoT New technologies led by , 5G, cloud, and AI are promoting the continuous emergence of new terminals other than smartphones, greatly improving the quality of life and efficiency of users.

“Their competition in the IoT field. The situation is the same as the competitive situation of mobile phone (business). "In Sun Yanbiao's view, the deployment of mobile phone production in IoT is an attempt no matter what product is produced. "At present, there are no hot products in the entire IoT industry, and the relatively popular products are not home appliances, but Bluetooth headsets and bracelets, so now mobile phone manufacturers We can make whatever products we want. "He pointed out.