Home > Article > HomePod joins the price war, but it is difficult to shake the domestic smart speaker manufacturers

HomePod joins the price war, but it is difficult to shake the domestic smart speaker manufacturers

China has become the world’s largest smart speaker market: According to Canalys data, global smart speaker sales in Q1 2019 reached 20.7 million units, of which China’s smart speaker sales alone reached 10.6 million units, an increase of nearly 500% year-on-year; so far, China’s sales volume Accounted for 51% of the total global smart speakers, the US share dropped from 44% to 24%.

We have also noticed that the three giants of Baidu, Alibaba and Xiaomi have performed well, and even pose a big threat to Amazon and Google. This shows the outstanding performance of domestic smart speaker giants. It is worth mentioning that although the smart speaker market has become a big pie, Apple’s market performance is quite weak. HomePod sales even dropped from 1.6 million units in Q4 2018 to 1.1 million units in Q1 2019. I believe that the domestic market has even more sales. It is unable to meet expectations. It is no wonder that Apple HomePod often offers "big tricks" to reduce prices in the domestic market!

HomePod's recent price has reached a new low

We know that Apple launched the National Bank version of HomePod in December last year, priced at 2,799 yuan, with two optional colors (white and space gray). In terms of user experience, HomePod, as the smart speaker that focuses on sound quality (excellent sound quality and spatial sense of music makes it quite appreciated), it also supports smart voice assistant (Siri), but the overall use conditions are more demanding. For example, users must have an Apple device. The price is relatively high, resulting in unsatisfactory market performance.

Entering April, Apple permanently reduced the HomePod price from the original 2799 yuan to 2299 yuan, and supported 24-month interest-free installment on the official website; also in April, HomePod ushered in a new low price in the e-commerce promotion 1999 Yuan (with full coupon discount, and white version), and the 1999 Yuan reserve price was repeatedly explored later, which seemed to firm up the strategy of "price-driven sales"; just last weekend, the HomePod price reached a new low. You can start at 1799 yuan (1,000 yuan cheaper than the initial price). People can't help but ask, why is the frequency of HomePod price cuts so high?

HomePod is a very closed product

As we mentioned earlier, HomePod use conditions are relatively harsh, and the requirement to have an Apple device eliminates the possibility of many Chinese users buying! The domestic mobile phone market is dominated by Android. Obviously, these users will not buy an Apple device to experience the HomePod. In addition, when the HomePod was released, the evaluation pointed out, "Unless you are a diehard Apple and are not sensitive to price, otherwise Not suitable for buying HomePod".

On the other hand, although HomePod has made many changes to the domestic market, such as supporting QQ Music, Kugou Music and Dragonfly FM services, it must be based on AirPlay 2 technology to achieve music playback. If you want to experience the best music experience, you can only use Apple Music, so that netizens complained that “it doesn’t support Bluetooth, only Airplay, it’s really ugly”; in addition, the smart voice assistant Siri carried by HomePod is not as good as the mobile phone. It’s not so smart as it is getting closer and closer to the mentally retarded. , And many users who are interested in smart speakers choose to escape.

In contrast, the smart speakers launched by domestic manufacturers are more satisfying in terms of price and localized experience: in addition to the good performance in voice and semantic recognition, domestic smart speakers have more comprehensive functions than HomePod, smart home, life services, Experiences such as music videos have brought more fun to the Chinese people; not only that, smart speakers of various brands also have their own advantages, such as the shopping experience of Tmall Wizard and the content resources of Youku, Baidu's Encyclopedia and iQiyi resources, Xiao Ai's powerful and convenient IoT linkage, etc., can attract relevant people in a more targeted manner.

Domestic manufacturers move frequently in the field of smart speakers

Not only that, but the big moves of these manufacturers (subsidies, sponsorship of variety shows, etc.) have further attracted the attention of Chinese people. It is not surprising that they have achieved excellent market performance: Baidu smashed 1.9 billion red envelopes during the Spring Festival Gala and gave out 10 Tens of thousands of Xiaodu AI speakers helped Baidu get out of the low tide of Raven’s failure; after that, Baidu launched Xiaodujia 1S smart speakers with screen and Xiaodu artificial intelligence speakers 1S and other products, and expanded smart speakers in the domestic market through hardware subsidies. Coverage.

Alibaba and Xiaomi also made a lot of actions: at the Tmall Genie 2019 spring new product launch, Alibaba Group launched the smart speaker with screen Tmall Genie CC, Tmall Genie Sugar R, Tmall Genie QUEEN beauty mirror, and Tmall Genie The Smart Car Box and other products of the Elf High German version extend the intelligent voice assistant to more devices, and the full-scenario voice interaction experience brings more convenience to users; Xiaomi will launch Xiaoai touch-screen speakers this year, allowing smart home control to be seen See, with the ultra-high cost performance and the linkage between Xiao Ai and Xiaomi's IoT smart devices, it is also very attractive in the market.

Opportunities and challenges coexist in the smart speaker market

It is worth mentioning that the skyrocketing sales of smart speakers poses challenges to market participants even if they have opportunities. The reason why there are good opportunities is that the demand for the domestic smart speaker market is indeed increasing, especially considering the smart home entrance attributes of smart speakers (smart speakers not only have a good voice interaction experience, but also have a very good Mobile is not suitable for the whole family to use like smart phones), but no company has become a real rule maker. Whether Baidu, Ali, Xiaomi or Tencent, Huawei and other participants, there are unlimited possibilities in the future .

As for the challenge, the smart speaker market has begun to show a clustering effect. Manufacturers who cannot invest heavily in technology and marketing are likely to be eliminated by fierce market competition. Not only that, such as smart robots or combination products (such as wearable devices + smart home devices) will replace smart speakers, will manufacturers stop subsidies will lead to a decline in consumer interest? It will also be a problem for smart speaker manufacturers. After all, smart speakers are far less sticky than mobile phone products, and the possibility of rapid decline will bring a lot of pressure to participants.

Write at the end

It is worth mentioning that even industry leaders such as Baidu, Alibaba and Xiaomi still need to seek new breakthroughs in smart speakers at this stage. This is not the case when David Mercer, Vice President of Strategy Analytics, once said, “Chinese technology such as Alibaba, Baidu and Xiaomi Companies regard smart speakers as a key strategy to build voice platforms and support the development of corresponding services. The Chinese domestic market is currently the focus, but the time has come for these companies to seek growth in other regions."

This also brings another problem. The localization advantages of Baidu, Ali and Xiaomi will no longer exist in overseas. How to better challenge Amazon and Google will become a big problem (the overseas market has obvious advantages and cheaper prices. )! However, in the domestic market, the attention of smart speakers is indeed getting higher and higher. You see, even my mom (who is not good at using smart devices) asked me some time ago, "How about buying a small degree to read a book?" So everyone Netizens, how do you view the development of the domestic smart speaker market? What are your views on the future development of domestic manufacturers? Welcome to leave comments.