Not long ago, Huawei launched a high-profile whole-house smart solution based on PLC (power carrier) technology, setting a new benchmark for IT companies to enter the smart home. Huawei is an expert in the communications industry, and its whole-house smart products appear to be more "hard-core", relying on the existing circuit system to realize the whole-house intelligent networking and interaction.
Huawei is capable of mass production of PLCs, but the implementation process is relatively complicated. At present, PLC-based mature whole-house smart solutions are still products for high-end people.
At the same time, Xiaodu, a subsidiary of Baidu, also launched a whole-house smart project. Among many Internet giants, Baidu is the first company to enter the field of whole-house intelligence through the Xiaodu brand. The difference is that Xiaodu's concept is lighter, and it adopts a wireless solution based on its own technology, which forms a direct confrontation with Huawei's wired communications.
Xiaodu whole-house intelligence based on wireless technology, first of all, has an advantage in cost. Low cost, low power consumption, and low failure are the obvious advantages of small-scale solutions. The most important thing is that the installation and maintenance of Xiaodu whole house intelligence is very convenient and simple, and it realizes the standardized output of customization, which greatly reduces the market promotion threshold of whole house intelligence. As a product of the giant, where is its confidence to sweep the army?
Has a broad mass base
In 2017, Baidu launched DuerOS, a conversational artificial intelligence operating system. According to a report in July 2019, DuerOS has covered more than 400 million devices and is currently the most successful case of benchmarking Amazon Alexa in the domestic market.
As of 2020 data, Xiaodu smart speakers and smart screens equipped with DuerOS have achieved the goal of number one shipment in the country, with a market share of 35%. Especially in the field of domestic smart screens, Xiaodu's market share is as high as 65.9%. For every 10 smart screens sold, at least 6 are small.
As a trendy product of human-computer interaction, smart speakers and smart screens are the closest moments for ordinary users to smart homes. According to statistics from the market survey agency Omdia, global smart speaker shipments will reach 154 million units in 2020, of which about one-fifth of the devices are equipped with displays. Smart speakers are currently the highest-selling and most popular smart home single product, as well as a smart home enlightenment device for many users.
Therefore, in addition to Baidu's big brand endorsement, Xiaodu has already given priority to many homes, and has allowed many potential customers of whole-house intelligence to develop the habit of using it in terms of voice interaction. In addition to the realization of network linkage and automatic control, the most important part of the whole house intelligence is the AI part. AI defines the "intelligence" of a whole-house smart product, and it is also a key factor in the transformation of passive intelligence into active intelligence. DuerOS's huge developer community and user base will provide a fairly reliable "smart" background for its empowered smart home.
For small smart speaker users, whole house intelligence may be the product they have long been looking forward to.
The ultimate experience is the key to success
Xiaodu launched the whole house smart, taking a "lightweight" route. But this route is not the "stacking" of Xiaomi, but extremely consistent. It just looks light, but it is supported by a complete set of deep-level techniques behind it. The communication protocol used by Xiaodu Whole House Intelligence is the FastCon technology independently developed by Baidu's ecological chain company Bolian, which enables the whole house intelligent system to achieve "zero configuration" access to the network. Different from the "zero configuration" of a single product, the zero configuration of the whole house focuses on all the devices in the offline service without electricity or network, which can be deployed at one time by scanning the code. After power-on, all the devices are automatically configured and networked. Scenarios Automatically issued. In this way, the installer does not need to configure and debug the equipment one by one.
Under the FastCon protocol, the smart devices of the whole house realize networking through the Wifi network. Wifi's SSID and password will be directly transmitted to the device to be connected in the form of data packets, and all this does not require the user to do it. The portable networking method is the most fundamental prerequisite for the intelligent landing of the whole house. In terms of remote control, local networking, transmission speed, control range, and energy consumption, FastCon is superior to the current mainstream Wi-Fi, Zigbee and Bluetooth Mesh, and it is specially developed for smart scenarios in the whole house.
Through the "neural circuit" of FastCon, Xiaodu Whole House Intelligence creates a smart residential product with a smooth and seamless experience in multiple dimensions such as smart security, smart dimming, smart environment, smart control, and smart scenes. It can be said that FastCon, as a wireless communication technology that deeply optimizes the Wifi protocol, has absolute strength in the current wireless field and is relatively barrier to wired solutions.
In the control of the whole house intelligent system, the biggest highlight of Xiaodu whole house intelligence is voice control. Thanks to the strong technical background of DuerOS, Xiaodu's understanding of user semantics and intentions is one of its core advantages, which is in sharp contrast with traditional voice command control. In addition, users can control through the panel and mobile phone. In addition, in the panel control, a variety of products with different styles and interactive forms have been launched, taking into account the appearance and ease of use.
Zero threshold installation and maintenance
Xiaodu Whole House Intelligent has independently developed and installed a background operating system and reserves a very comprehensive program model library, making the project implementation extremely standardized. By creating standardized products with strong reproducibility, Xiaodu Whole House Intelligence lowered the threshold for the project.
Especially for channel vendors of smart home products, the installation and maintenance of smart products throughout the house has always been a headache. The commissioning and installation costs caused by the complexity of the product will eventually be passed on to the user. At the beginning of product design, Xiaodu Whole House Smart took the installation and maintenance of the project as one of the most important optimization points.
Through the virtual installation platform to build the model, the Xiaodu whole house intelligent channel business only needs to scan the code to complete the deployment of the whole house AI model during construction. Such an installation process, on the one hand, has been planned and rehearsed in advance, so that the intelligent solution can be perfectly adapted to the customer's house; on the other hand, it also lowers the technical threshold of the front-line installation and maintenance personnel, and only electricians are required to achieve the landing.
The virtual installation platform is preset with a variety of standardized solutions, and a virtual model can be set up with one click, without the need for each project to be commissioned one by one. Let customized services be implemented in a standardized manner, shorten the delivery cycle and reduce the risk of product backlog. At the same time, the platform supports remote fault location and debugging and maintenance, which reduces the service cost of channel providers and increases net profit.
It can be seen that while the whole house is smart, the product installation and maintenance process will also become "smart". Because the landing of products is inseparable from the vast network of channel vendors, through the intelligent back-end operating system, the threshold of smart landing of the whole house can be greatly improved, so that "heavy" products can be sold in a "light" way.
For a long time, whole-house smart products always give people a "cumbersome" impression. This is because it involves multiple types of single products, multiple technologies and multiple links. As a customized service, although it needs to achieve personalized output, if there is no standardized program design and landing process, then it will be a little "feeling" to promote it. Therefore, the answer given by Xiaodu gives the whole house intelligence the possibility of batch development, giving channel companies more room for imagination.
Concluding remarks
At present, Xiaodu Whole House Smart is attracting investment across the country. As a whole-house smart product incubated by Internet giants, this stage is the best time to fully seize the endorsements of big brands and tap the secondary dividend of the smart speaker market. According to Zhin'er's exclusive understanding, Xiaodu Whole House Smart currently has 0 franchise fees and provides professional training courses. In addition to first- and second-tier cities and provincial capitals, other cities can be exclusively authorized.