If 2014 is the eve of the explosion of intelligent hardware, then in the first half of 2015, the smart hardware market ushered in the first big bang, and Internet companies such as Xiaomi, LeTV and 360 entered the market. The original blue ocean market was in a good situation. In the evening, it became the blood sea that is about to be buried with the bones of Sensen. In the same way, in the face of strong opponents, who can step through the long night to live in the dawn?
Enthusiasm, smart hardware is being accepted by the public
Since the past six months, the public's attitude towards smart hardware has changed a lot. According to Jingdong's "Intelligent Hardware Data Analysis Report" released in June, the year-on-year sales of smart hardware increased by 264% from January to May 2015, and the number of users increased by 215%. The “2014-2015 Intelligent Hardware Market Analysis Report†released by “Ai Media†also predicts that the scale of China's smart home market will reach 43.1 billion yuan in the whole year of 2015, a year-on-year increase of 41.8%.
Figure 1: Volkswagen warms up on smart hardware
Faced with huge market demand, major manufacturers have begun to chase: Lei Jun said that he would invest more than 100 intelligent hardware companies, and has launched hardware such as Xiaomi bracelet and Xiaomi patch panel; LeTV launched smart phones and TVs to improve the ecology. Layout; 360 mobile phones and smart homes are two-pronged. After entering the mobile phone market, we will continue to launch smart hardware such as children's smart watches, smart cameras and super chargers.
On the surface, major companies have entered the field of intelligent hardware to fill the market gap. The underlying reason is that traditional portals such as portals, search and social software are deteriorating, and intelligent hardware has become the gateway to the Internet. In addition, the depth of intelligent hardware is in line with General Secretary Li Keqiang. The proposed concepts of "Internet +" and "Made in China 2025", intelligent, connected, modular, interactive, etc., will become the main direction of future manufacturing. There are professional IT staff who assert that smart hardware is the next ticket in the mobile Internet era.
The people sought after, the manufacturers worked hard, and the smart hardware market was thriving.
Although many companies have developed smart wearable products, if you want to further promote the popularity of smart wear, taking wearable devices as an example, several difficulties in design can not be ignored:
First, the problem of low power consumption is to compare the working power consumption and standby power consumption of the MCU itself, and to ensure that the MCU wakes up from sleep as short as possible;
The second is the MCU and sensor peripheral interface design, the principle is to ensure real-time, data integrity and low power consumption;
The third is to integrate smarter solutions;
Fourth, wearable device UI design requires innovative understanding and design;
The fifth is the wearable device platform, OS, algorithms, communication protocols and software issues;
Finally, with intelligent hardware, industrial design, manufacturing, and materials are also difficult.
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Cold eyes, smart hardware moves from 喧嚣 to reality
It is true that with the rise of the concept of “Internet of Everythingâ€, intelligent hardware has warmed up significantly, and the above-mentioned Internet companies have been focusing on home products. However, concepts are just concepts. From concept to product maturity to mass production, it is a long process. In this vacuum period, it has been enough for the smart hardware market to complete several reshuffles. The ideal is good, but it is the most urgent need to survive in the crowding of big manufacturers.
Figure 2: The smart hardware market is highly competitive
For domestic intelligent hardware manufacturers, the most important thing is to grasp the user's pain points and the entry point that is finer than the needle.
The former takes Xiaomi's smart device as an example: the USB interface that can be directly charged on the millet patch panel catches the user's pain point very well. Without this pain point, the millet patch panel is not even as good as the traditional patch cord. board.
In the refinement of the entry point, it is 360 dominant: 360 children's smart watches, although they are also wearable smart devices, but because of its clear positioning, refine the market, seize the "child" all the points, avoid Most of the market competition; on the contrary, because the entry point is too broad, the Xiaomi bracelet is attacked by Apple Watch and the collective weakness is almost a matter of course.
Safe, smart hardware of Achilles' heel
The more intense the market competition, the more able to bring out its bright future. But this seems to be an area with unlimited future, but there are also fatal hidden dangers. Most of the smart hardware on the market, because manufacturers are eager to network, ignoring the security issues hidden behind them, privacy leaks, weak passwords, non-encrypted communications, and web page operations are exposed repeatedly; and because some enterprise management is safe for smart hardware The degree of attention is far from enough, leading to frequent incidents that threaten information security and even personal safety.
Figure 3: Security issues into smart hardware
Information disclosure: Last September, a malware that could infect many smart hardware such as routers, thermostats, dryers, etc., formed a large botnet of 12,000 to 15,000 units and implemented various forms in Asia and the United States. DDoS attack. Attack traffic peaks up to 215G and 150 million packets per second.
Figure 4: More than 80% of users are most concerned about security issues
Personal threat: In April of this year, a company's directly chargeable smart patch panels were frequently reported by netizens, saying that they were at risk of spontaneous combustion and burning of mobile phone sockets.
According to ORICO statistics, only Taobao's charger sales can reach 26 million per month. Compared with the introduction of the top products, most of the patch panels do not have perfect protection measures; however, 360 Mall is free to use. Data Analysis shows that more than 80% of users are most worried about the safety of the charger.
In Maslow's hierarchy of needs, security is the underlying (basic) requirement that is second only to the conditions of existence. However, many domestic intelligent hardware manufacturers can't satisfy even the most basic needs.
In the future, the ability to protect and satisfy users will survive.
In many Internet companies involved in the field of intelligent hardware, it is rare to follow the will of the user completely, and it is not impossible. In China, Internet companies are often synonymous with “not deep knowledgeâ€. Take security as an example: if there are not enough security genes, enterprises will be far less secure than traditional hardware companies in grasping hardware security.
This can only be seen from the similarities and differences between the security enterprise 360 ​​and the charger produced by the mobile phone manufacturer Xiaomi. The 360 ​​Super Charger has more protection against overcurrent, overcharge, overheat, and short circuit than the directly chargeable millet patch panel; while Xiaomi spends the main design on preventing the patch panel from being ugly. Chaos, rough". In view of the comprehensive user's requirements for security, the two have a high judgment.
Although this is only a small example, it can be seen from the micro-knowledge, from which you can also see the attitude of enterprises to do intelligent hardware. LeTV, Xiaomi and 360 can be said to be the most likely companies in the field of intelligent hardware to grow into unicorns. Unfortunately, LeTV currently focuses on smart TV and mobile phones in the smart hardware. The latter two are fully deployed in the field of intelligent hardware. Xiaomi has a mobile phone as the connection center, and has just created Qikuo and acquired the god. 360, can also fight for the wind.
As mentioned earlier, the smart hardware market is extremely variable, and a carelessness may lead to a product that is dead on the road of maturity and mass production. This carelessness may be a minor security incident, or it may be a hungry marketing that sets itself on fire. Therefore, if you want to live to dawn, you must not only meet the needs of users, but also give them enough protection and security. Now it seems that 360 is a passing, and Xiaomi is only a little worse.
The night is deep, is the sky still far away?
Networking is the soul of smart hardware. There are two types of ways to connect to the Internet. One is a relatively fixed object, and the information is sent to the cloud through wireless routing. The other is connected to the mobile phone through, for example, a wearable device. Intelligent hardware is the key to connecting to the Internet, but its development still has many difficulties, including:
1. Intelligent hardware requires high MCU. The performance and resources of MCU products are limited, and the power consumption needs to be further reduced.
2. In the industrial design of intelligent hardware, the structure, process and materials need to be further optimized;
3, the software is complex, because it involves a lot of drivers, protocols, security, algorithms and applications, making it easy to implement in the laboratory, but it is difficult to make stable, healthy, and able to enter the application;
4, experience and perspective, traditional manufacturing companies lack of Internet thinking; Internet companies do not have hardware firmware experience; startup companies mostly have only one concept, a picture, can not be explored.
In response to these problems, the Internet of Things brings great opportunities for embedded applications. It is very important to adopt standard wireless technologies and mature solutions. Embedded software based on MCU is the core. People with manufacturing experience and Internet thinking are more likely to succeed. . Intelligent hardware involves a very wide range of people, and we need everyone's cooperation in the ecological chain.
About "2015 China Hardware Innovation Competition"
· Introduction to the competition:
China Hardware Innovation Competition is jointly organized by Huaqiang Core City, electronic components online mall Huaqiang Core City, PCB online customization platform Huaqiang PCB, Nebula Intelligent Hardware Accelerator, Lenovo Star and many other investment institutions. The factory provides participants with one-stop free service from component chip materials, PCB proofing, original development platform technical support, entrepreneurial institution incubation, venture capital and crowdfunding platform to help Chinese hardware startup team achieve rapid success! The competition is divided into three major regions: Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.
· Entry conditions
1. Participants: for enterprises, makers, engineers, etc., regardless of individual or group participation;
2. Submit the product idea, prototype, product plan to sign up for the competition; the specific design plan is not limited.
3. Product prototypes must be submitted during the final phase.
4. The participating projects can choose to cooperate with the original factory to provide IC chips and related development kits and services;
· Entry process
· Benefits from the competition
â— The most commercial value award (5):
1. Enter the Nebula Intelligent Hardware Accelerator and receive 6 months of free admission, training and coaching
2. Get the full support of the Nebula Accelerator until the product is made and put into the crowdfunding platform at home and abroad, and have the opportunity to get 500,000 investment in the Nebula Accelerator.
3. Opportunity to get Shanghai Qingke 500,000 project incubation fund and go online Taobao crowdfunding
â— Best MiCO Application Design Award (1):
The best application design product was evaluated in the project using the MICO operating system, with an amount of 20,000 yuan.
â— High-density media promotion and exposure opportunities for participating products
Electronic enthusiasts and partners continue to high-density exposure
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