Amazon’s Echo, with millions of units shipped and over half of the market share, is recognized worldwide as the most successful voice assistant product, receiving widespread praise on Chinese internet forums for over a year. However, even such a successful product as the Echo is not recommended by responsible users on any tech or shopping forums in China at its original price. The reason is simple: it does not support Chinese. Considering the original price is as high as $199, unless one can purchase it at a member price or some other discount, the money spent would only buy a Bluetooth speaker with a decent design—honestly, even saving $100 with a member price is not cheap for a speaker with average sound quality. Moreover, since the relationship between voice assistants and smart homes is so close, when most people consider whether the Echo itself is useful, they must also consider the practicality of its peripheral products. The answer to this question in China is equally tragic. Therefore, despite its power, the Echo is kept out of the Chinese smart home market due to language and other issues. In this awkward situation, a domestic brand that sharply contrasts with the ‘high-end’ of smart homes has emerged—Xiaomi. Smart homes may seem far away, but catching up with the trend is not that difficult.
Many Xiaomi fans I have encountered cannot provide me with good answers regarding the “Xiaomi Smart Home Ecosystem” (Mi Home and its series of home products). Although they often say things like “Don’t underestimate Xiaomi, it has a high cost-performance ratio,” “Xiaomi is the best quality in its price range,” and “It’s simple and easy to use, you don’t even need to read the manual,” the awkward truth is that most of them have not purchased a significant number of Mi Home products, let alone built their own smart home with them. Some self-deprecatingly say they are “too poor to be a Xiaomi fan” or “poor like a true Xiaomi fan.” In fact, from my perspective as an outsider, there is no need to be so harsh, as I also do not use any brand of smart home products. If you ask me why, my answer would definitely be “I don’t need them.” However, we all understand that sometimes the difference between “not needing” and “demand” is just a layer of ‘cognition’ or ‘habit’ that needs to be broken. Before I encountered those who truly navigate smart homes in China, I also felt that smart homes were far from me. I never knew that my friend A was a Xiaomi fan; in fact, he often writes articles criticizing Xiaomi that get over 100,000 views. However, visiting his home, I discovered he is a smart home enthusiast, and all his smart home devices are from Xiaomi. A opened his phone and showed me the Mi Home app. Xiaomi has three shopping apps: Xiaomi Mall, Mi Home, and Mi Home Youpin. To purchase and control the “Xiaomi Smart Home Ecosystem,” the Mi Home app is sufficient. This app serves both as a marketplace and a controller, connecting your phone with the Mi Home devices you own. A has quite a few items in his ecosystem—an air purifier, a humidifier, smart plugs, wireless switches, table lamps, and bedside lamps. How do they work smartly? There are mainly three aspects:
- Sensor: Devices like air purifiers and humidifiers automatically turn on when they detect someone in the room; they turn off automatically after a person leaves the room for a while;
- Timing: Devices like smart plugs and wireless networks turn on when they detect a person during fixed time periods (for example, from after work to before work) and turn off at other times;
- Remote Control: All switches can be controlled via the Mi Home app on the phone, especially the lights.
I browsed the specific settings in the Mi Home app, which seemed quite intuitive for someone like me who has never purchased smart home products. As for connecting the products, as long as there is a wireless network, it can be done. Of course, besides the wireless network, many components of the ecosystem also have ZigBee models, which will be mentioned later. I asked A if smart homes brought any trouble or malfunctions. A said that the setup itself is relatively simple, the cost of misoperation is low, and it is not troublesome; the software has never malfunctioned; due to unstable wireless networks, sometimes the automatic switches may fail, but manual switches can remedy that; the hardware quality of Mi Home is limited, and its lifespan may not be very long, but the prices are low, allowing for repeat purchases. It is evident that the “Xiaomi Smart Home Ecosystem” indeed provides a somewhat satisfactory smart home solution in China. Although Mi Home was not launched very early, it integrates a series of smart products from Xiaomi, making the home system relatively complete. Compared to the strengths in product aspects, installation and after-sales service are clearly areas where Xiaomi currently falls short. Therefore, devices like air conditioners and range hoods are temporarily not covered by Mi Home. To connect his air conditioner with the Mi Home app, A also conveniently purchased Xiaomi’s universal remote control. The universal remote control is an electronic product that has existed for a long time but has always had a low profile; in a sense, smart homes have given it a new lease on life. Why do people need it, and why do they not?Considering that several Xiaomi fans I have seen have never spent money to buy, I was curious about how A came to want to buy this pile of things. Moreover, A does not consider himself a Xiaomi fan. A gave me two reasons. First, devices like air purifiers and humidifiers are often forgotten to be turned on by middle-aged and elderly people (like his parents) when they are in the room, which leads to the devices not functioning as intended. “I completely agree with this; my mom only turns on the air purifier based on her mood,” I said, “and then?” “Secondly, in winter, after taking a shower and getting into bed to read, I can’t stand having to get out of bed to turn off the lights before sleeping.” I was taken aback. Indeed, this may seem like a trivial need, but it is precisely this trivial need that often resonates with tens of thousands of users on Weibo when written as a joke. Another point that A did not mention, I can summarize for him: as a resident of a duplex apartment, running around to turn devices on and off is indeed too troublesome. The reason I sought out A to understand smart homes was actually because we were discussing the recent inexplicably popular voice robot “Ruo Qi.” A said that because Ruo Qi can connect with Mi Home, he is considering using Ruo Qi to control the “Xiaomi Smart Home Ecosystem”—just like Amazon Echo. Why is it so difficult for domestic smart home enthusiasts to consider Amazon Echo? It is indeed a well-explained issue. Language barriers are just part of the problem; many online services cannot function properly in China, which is a significant hurdle, and many home appliances connected to Echo are difficult to purchase in mainland China, let alone after-sales service… This is probably the biggest obstacle to Echo’s popularity in mainland China. In other words, even if Chinese people become proficient in English or Echo supports Chinese, and even if China removes the Great Firewall, Echo’s entry into China would still face numerous challenges—because not all related smart home companies are willing or able to enter the Chinese market, which means that Chinese Echo users can buy smart devices but cannot buy homes. So what about JD’s WeLink? I asked A why he didn’t consider JD’s WeLink, which can be used in China. A said that there are no real obstacles, but he has three concerns regarding JD’s model, which is similar to Echo’s “I make smart, others make homes” approach: first, the cooperation between other appliance manufacturers and JD’s WeLink may not be stable or long-lasting, which could lead to the need to occasionally replace individual components; second, compared to Xiaomi’s control over its products, JD’s WeLink involves multiple manufacturers, which may have varying quality, making it difficult to choose; third, the overall visual effect of a multi-brand product combination is poor, with inconsistent aesthetics. This is certainly A’s personal opinion. In my view, the “I make smart, I also make homes” model represented by Mi Home also has its corresponding drawbacks. This debate can be likened to a matter of personal preference, but from a global perspective, Amazon Echo, Google Home, and the relatively unnoticed Apple HomeKit have not adopted Xiaomi’s model. We can certainly interpret Xiaomi’s approach as unique, but in many ways, being unique does not necessarily mean it is a good thing. Speaking of Apple’s HomeKit… What? How much? Protocol disputesIn fact, the debate over smart home models is not limited to the differences between Xiaomi and JD’s models, but also includes the significant differences between Wi-Fi and ZigBee (we won’t mention Z-Wave, which cannot be used for civilian purposes in China). As mentioned earlier, most of Mi Home’s products provide both Wi-Fi and ZigBee specifications. Although the dual standards solve the immediate choice dilemma, they undoubtedly bring higher costs to manufacturers and add more trouble for consumers. As for their respective advantages and disadvantages, the pros and cons of Wi-Fi are well-known; here we will discuss them relatively: the advantages mainly lie in high transmission rates, strong stability, direct internet access, and, uh… the ability to penetrate walls; while the disadvantages are high power consumption and relatively poor security. Of course, in the context of smart home applications, the advantage of high transmission rates can be overlooked—how much data can those few sensors in the home generate? As for ZigBee, which many people are less familiar with, what is its situation? First, it should be noted that this technology was originally invented for outdoor applications and industrial monitoring, thus presenting strong scalability advantages: low power consumption, a massive network capacity (up to 65,000 devices), and high security. However, precisely because its advantages are evident in large-scale applications, these advantages are somewhat diminished in the “overkill” smart home field: in a household electrical environment, the relatively high power consumption of Wi-Fi is not unacceptable, and with technological advancements, Wi-Fi power consumption is also decreasing; smart homes do not need to connect thousands of devices at once (of course, being limited to connecting only seven devices like Bluetooth is clearly insufficient, which is a critical point); the demand for security in homes is not that strong, and considering that the ZigBee protocol is relatively less mature than Wi-Fi, the rapid evolution of protocols may lead to new security issues. The disadvantages of ZigBee compared to Wi-Fi are also quite evident: the protocol is immature, stability is questionable; although self-organizing networks are convenient, they cannot directly connect to the internet, so smart home setups require a router; network setup requires purchasing a dedicated gateway, while Wi-Fi does not have this concern; and the most serious issue—poor wall penetration, making it nearly unusable just one room away. Additionally, there is a contradiction that Wi-Fi does not care about but ZigBee must consider: the two can interfere with each other. I believe everyone can use this as a reason to decisively abandon ZigBee, but I doubt anyone would decisively give up Wi-Fi, right? It is clear that if you do not plan to live in a geek’s “smart room” but are considering adding “smart home” features for the whole family, using ZigBee devices may bring you considerable trouble. Honestly, even if you are a low-carbon environmentalist sensitive to power consumption, relying on low-power Wi-Fi is more reliable than depending on the current ZigBee. The above comparison of the pros and cons of Wi-Fi and ZigBee is based on A’s experience with smart home usage. Looking back at all of A’s smart home components: lights and plugs are self-evident, while air purifiers and humidifiers need to be plugged in. It is undeniable that for battery-operated smart home components (remote controls, sensors, electronic locks, smoke alarms, etc.), the low power consumption of ZigBee can be significantly advantageous. We can see that to accommodate both plugged-in devices and battery-operated devices, Mi Home utilizes both Wi-Fi and ZigBee. Whether this is a tactical consideration for individual products or a strategic consideration for Mi Home as a whole is unknown—this dual approach may increase costs for Mi Home; however, for consumers, it at least allows for a selection of what they need. Simple and ReliableIndeed, even users like A have only reached the initial stage of smart home usage. However, from the broader environment, we can guess that among the users of the Mi Home mall, those who can skillfully use smart homes like A are also very few. The threshold for using smart homes is so high that it leads to a serious problem: manufacturers cannot just focus on making smart homes well; they must also think about how to sell them. Therefore, although A’s opinions on JD’s WeLink are one-sided, objectively speaking, Mi Home’s potential to popularize smart homes is indeed stronger than JD’s. Although JD’s WeLink smart home products are not inferior to Mi Home’s, when we open the malls of both, we will find a striking difference: in Mi Home, if you want to buy something, you can just buy it; in JD, you still have to choose. Of course, some may say that choice is freedom, a right granted to every consumer by market economy, but considering the cognitive threshold of smart homes, will you really be able to “choose” smoothly during your first encounter with smart homes? Rather than acknowledging Mi Home’s quiet efforts to cover all categories of smart homes, it is more impressive to praise Xiaomi’s strategy in new retail. JD may perform as well as Xiaomi in smart homes, but facing the overwhelming variety of products and their thick user manuals, the strong geeky vibe can overwhelm first-time consumers. Most of Mi Home’s products, you should know, can be used without any manual at all. Li Yanhong said that Baidu’s culture is summed up in five words: “Simple and Reliable.” In the field of smart homes, Mi Home truly deserves these five words. The high cost of HomeKit, the foreignness of Echo, and the confusion of JD’s WeLink—all the weaknesses of each competitor are too glaring. Unexpectedly, in China, the “Xiaomi Smart Home Ecosystem” has become the most “simple and reliable” smart home solution.