The battle for smart homes is shifting from the “post-installation” to the “pre-installation” market. The post-installation market mainly refers to smart products that users can enjoy after purchasing and bringing them home. Many companies are competing in the post-installation field, including internet companies like Baidu and Alibaba, as well as smartphone brands like Xiaomi and Huawei, leading to a competitive era in the post-installation market. Pre-installation refers to providing smart solutions before users renovate their homes, with participants including real estate companies like Vanke. Meanwhile, comprehensive manufacturers like Haier offer overall solutions and products that span both the pre-installation and post-installation markets.
1
The Competitive Landscape of the Post-installation Market
The post-installation market offers an incremental smart living experience, where after renovation, users can enjoy smart products without further modifications to plumbing or electrical systems. For buyers, adding a product without the hassle of renovation and saving on premium costs makes small smart home hardware like robotic vacuums and smart fans attractive.
The advantages of this layout include low prices, high flexibility, and easy installation. It is easier for companies to enter this market, and many, including internet, smartphone, and home appliance companies, are focusing on the post-installation market, leading to fierce competition. Currently, expanding product lines through smart speakers has become the choice for most players.
This strategy has its own advantages—smart speakers serve as entry-level products, allowing companies to accumulate user bases and easily expand connected products, forming a chain consumption model. For instance, users of Baidu’s smart speaker are unlikely to be satisfied with just listening to music or jokes, so Baidu is providing more products that can connect with Xiaodu Assistant.
Skyworth has even partnered with Baidu, allowing TV users to control Skyworth TVs, refrigerators, and other appliances using the wake word “Xiaodu Xiaodu.” Currently, hardware brands integrated with Xiaodu Assistant include Suning, Xiao Tiancai, TCL, OV, and others. Thus, a scenario arises where, as the novelty of smart speakers fades, users might buy a robotic vacuum to continue the experience, as it is also affordable… This repeated stimulation of consumption is the essence of this strategy, driving sales of various products without putting pressure on users’ wallets.
2
Haier’s Competitive Edge in ‘Pre-installation’ and ‘Post-installation’
Haier’s smart home solutions not only cater to the post-installation market but also advance into the pre-installation market. Simply put, users who buy new homes can customize a Haier smart home solution starting from the renovation of their bare shell apartments, enjoying a smart home experience immediately after completion.
If you only want to add a few smart items to your home, Haier’s post-installation solutions are perfectly adequate. Products like Haier’s Xinchufridges and smart toilet seats are very popular in the market, and their internet-connected air conditioners have ranked first in global sales for three consecutive years, allowing for a wide range of choices.
For new renovation users, Haier can intervene in the pre-installation phase, accompanying the renovation process from the design stage, wiring layout, and switch reservations, closely tracking the entire operation. Whole-house air purification and water purification systems are installed in batches, culminating in the installation of all smart devices, including major appliances, lighting, and curtains.
This comprehensive approach is supported by platform connectivity technology and includes large smart devices like refrigerators, TVs, and washing machines, allowing users to avoid running around—Haier handles everything in one stop.
This layout method offers advantages over post-installation smart homes, such as stable service and efficient connectivity, with benefits like “one-time investment, lifetime returns.” However, it also faces a high entry barrier: the pre-installation market, which touches on users’ essential needs, requires not only a rich variety of products and complete experiences but also high demands for after-sales and installation services. Moreover, the one-time payment for pre-installation solutions can be a significant financial burden for users.
Nevertheless, Haier’s comprehensive smart home solutions, which can cost tens of thousands, broke through 10 million units sold in 2019. The key to Haier overcoming this barrier lies in its three major advantages: completeness, intelligence, and customization. Haier can meet the smart needs of various physical spaces in the home, such as kitchens and bathrooms, with a range of products from different brands, and can customize different solutions for each household. In terms of overall smart performance, in addition to voice control, it also achieves self-sensing, self-judgment, and proactive service from devices, such as windows automatically closing when rain is detected and air devices autonomously adjusting temperature and humidity.
3
Irrelevant of ‘Pre’ or ‘Post’, the User is the Endpoint
Whether pre-installation or post-installation, both are important drivers for the mutual prosperity of the domestic smart home market. They are not opposing forces but rather different stages and paths shaped by the unique characteristics of various enterprises.
For instance, post-installation companies represented by Xiaomi and Baidu do not engage directly in the research and production of the core “hardware” in smart home product categories. They have fewer major appliance product lines and require time and financial investment to enhance the pre-installation market’s pre-sales and after-sales service capabilities. Faced with fleeting industry benefits, it is wise to first provide users with cost-effective products that are not essential.
Haier’s ability to provide solutions in both the post-installation and pre-installation markets stems from its hardware manufacturing advantages and innovative IoT capabilities. Haier has long possessed leading original technology and a rich product line, having entered the smart home sector as early as 2006. It has continuously explored smart home platforms, IoT technology, and algorithms, and has led the formulation of multiple international standards, gaining a voice in IoT technology. From providing competitive home appliance products to offering complete smart appliance products, and finally to delivering comprehensive smart home solutions, Haier’s performance in both the pre-installation and post-installation markets is commendable.
Currently, Haier’s smart home solutions, which transition from post-installation to pre-installation, are leading the industry in both height and depth, but this is not the focus, nor does it represent the endpoint. In the future, companies that layout both pre-installation and post-installation will form a complementary force, advancing towards the common goal of providing users with a smart and beautiful life.
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