In recent years, the smart home craze has swept almost the entire home appliance industry. From large appliances such as refrigerators, air conditioners, and TVs to small appliances such as rice cookers and induction cookers, almost all home appliances are transforming in the direction of intelligence. The most prominent function of intelligent products is that they can be remotely controlled via mobile apps. On the way home from get off work, you can turn on the air conditioner and water heater in advance, or set up the rice cooker to cook in advance, which provides huge convenience to busy migrant workers. When Xiao Lei discusses purchasing home appliances with his family, he will also give priority to smart home appliances.
However, home appliances are not fast-moving consumer goods, and their replacement generally takes a long time. Under normal circumstances, a refrigerator and washing machine can be used for ten or eight years without any problem. For many consumers who are still using traditional home appliances, smart home appliances have become an elusive dream. After all, not everyone is willing to abandon their old home appliances and replace them with new ones. Intelligent home appliances are really attractive, but only new products launched in recent years will be supported, which is not conducive to the popularization of the concept and market development. As a result, everyone began to think about how to make traditional old home appliances smart without dismantling or replacing them, and the smart switch came into being.
(Source: Xiaomi official)
The experience that smart switches can bring is naturally incomparable with smart home appliances, but it can indeed enable some traditional home appliances to have basic smart functions, such as switching lights on and off at scheduled times, water heaters, etc., allowing some home appliances that can be started when the power is turned on to also have an intelligent experience. Moreover, with the continuous advancement of smart switches, smart appliances are also equipped with more modes and gameplay to enhance the user experience. In recent years, smart switches have developed rapidly and have become an indispensable part of the whole-house smart system, gradually replacing traditional switches.
The market deployment rate of smart switches continues to increase
The "2020 Smart Home Consumption Insights in Sinking Markets" report released by Tmall pointed out that the annual sales of smart switches in the sinking markets increased by 900% year-on-year , making it the fastest growing smart home category in the sinking market. In the fine decoration market, smart switches have gradually become standard equipment. From January to November, the total number of newly launched fine decoration residential projects was 2.722 million units, and the supporting scale of smart switches reached 320,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 81.2%, and the deployment rate reached 11.8%. By 2021, the supporting scale of smart switches will reach 427,000 sets, a year-on-year increase of 15.5%, and the deployment rate is 14.9%, which is developing steadily.
The latest data released by Aowei Cloud Network shows that the development of domestic smart switches this year has still achieved positive growth despite the adverse trend. This year, due to the downturn in the market economy, the real estate industry has also encountered an unprecedented trough. From January to October, the total number of newly launched finely decorated residential properties was only 1.1875 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 47.8%, almost halved. Among them, the supporting scale of smart switches was 220,700 sets, a year-on-year decrease of 37%, but the deployment rate reached 18.6%, an increase of 3.7% on the basis of last year. It can be seen that although the number of users buying houses and renovating houses is decreasing, the proportion of users choosing to use smart switches is increasing year by year.
(Source: Aowei Cloud Network)
At present, the trend of brand leadership in the domestic smart switch market is still relatively clear. The total market share of TOP5 brands has reached 55.4%, accounting for more than half. Among them, TCL-Legrand has a share of 19.1%, ranking first for two consecutive years, followed by , Siemens , Simon, Langxin and other brands. Although the ranking of the TOP5 brands fluctuates, they are basically occupied by these companies. However, the share of foreign brands in the entire market still exceeds that of domestic brands, reaching 51%. Although domestic brands have been struggling to catch up in the past few years, their brand influence is still slightly insufficient and they still need to find ways to improve it.
In terms of urban structure, new first-tier cities such as Chengdu, Nanjing, and Xi'an are developing faster, and the demand for smart switches is the highest, with a scale of 94,000 sets and a market share of 43%.The growth rate of other first-tier cities has declined to varying degrees. First-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen have the slowest decline, but they also dropped by 14.7% year-on-year. It can be seen that the main development market for smart switches in the future should be concentrated in new first-tier cities and surrounding second- and third-tier cities. Although first-tier cities are economically developed, their potential is indeed declining. With the domestic economic recovery next year, the smart switch market should usher in a relatively large wave of growth.
(Source: Aowei Cloud Network)
The rapid rise of new first-tier cities has attracted more young people to work, buy houses and settle down. Most young people are keen on smart home appliances, which will become the potential for the development of smart switches and smart home appliances in the future. Nowadays, the deployment rate of smart switches continues to increase, and it has become a new trend. With the increase of solutions in the industry and the reduction of costs, the smart switch industry will surely take off quickly, and the prospects are promising.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Smart Switches
Seeing the above data, many friends may be ready to upgrade their home switches to smart switches to keep up with the mainstream of the times. However, Xiaolei would like to remind you that although smart switches can provide many conveniences, they are not without shortcomings. Before carrying out modification and upgrade, you still need to have a more detailed understanding of the product. Below, Xiaolei will briefly introduce the advantages and disadvantages of smart switches to help you make better judgments.
According to functions, smart switches can be roughly divided into dimmer switches, scene switches, binding switches, smart air-conditioning switches, etc. You can guess their basic functional characteristics from the name. Compared with traditional switches, the biggest advantage of smart switches is that they can be connected to various smart home appliances to achieve richer controllability. For example, dimmer switches can not only control the on/off of lights, but also control brightness, color temperature, mode, etc.; scene switches can be connected to control multiple home appliances at the same time, enabling one-click activation. For example, setting a movie scene can automatically turn on the TV, turn off lights, close curtains, etc., creating an atmosphere suitable for watching movies.
(Source: Xiaomi official)
The second advantage is that it supports remote control or scheduled control via mobile app. It can be turned on or off at a certain time every day to avoid waste caused by forgetting to turn off the power. It is precisely thanks to this feature that some traditional home appliances can become more intelligent, supporting time switches, remote start, etc. The third advantage is that most smart switches are relatively simple and elegant in design, and some are equipped with touch screens, which are much more beautiful than traditional button mechanical switches. The appearance and structure are simpler, and the product's stability and safety will also be improved to a certain extent. The shortcomings of the
smart switch are actually quite obvious. First, it is naturally a problem of network connection and communication. Smart switches may be located in every corner of the home, but the WiFi or wireless technology in the home may not be able to do this. It is difficult to ensure that every switch can be online at all times without disconnection problems. Moreover, any smart home appliance has high requirements for the stability of the network. If the network is suddenly disconnected, the home appliance will not be able to work normally. Sometimes, problems may be encountered during the restoration of the Internet, requiring re-pairing, etc. Therefore, when choosing to use smart switches or smart appliances, you must first evaluate whether your home network is capable.
(Source: Greenmi Aqara official)
Secondly, the price of smart switches is not cheap. The price of traditional switches is about ten yuan each. It is even cheaper to buy the whole house when decorating. Smart switches that support the most basic wireless connection functions may cost forty or fifty, and those with screens and supporting voice and other functions may even cost two to three hundred each. Smart switches are not only expensive, but once they malfunction and need to be repaired and replaced, the cost is also high.Third, smart switches are divided into many different types according to their functions, resulting in low versatility and compatibility of the products, which may cause certain obstacles or restrictions on installation and use.
smart switch is indeed of great benefit, but when choosing, it also needs to take into account its disadvantages so that you won’t regret it after installing it. According to the current development trend, whole-house intelligence will inevitably become the mainstream in the future, and the importance and popularity of smart switches will also increase accordingly. I believe that the above problems will be gradually solved over time. Can the
smart switch take off with smart home appliances?
In recent years, domestic smart switches and other smart home appliances seem to have developed rapidly, but to be honest, 's market penetration rate is extremely low. Statistics from the Forward Industry Research Institute show that in 2016, the penetration rate of of smart homes in China was only 0.1%, far behind the 5.8% of the United States, while Japan, Germany and others also reached 1.2%. As of the end of 2021, the overall scale of the domestic smart home market reached 580 billion yuan, and the penetration rate has struggled to increase to 4.9%, dozens of times compared with five years ago. But at this time, the penetration rate in the United States has reached 32%, which means that 1 in every 3 households uses smart home appliances. The gap between us and developed countries is still very obvious.
(Photo source: Oribo official)
So, can the rapid development of smart switches promote the further popularization of smart home appliances? Xiao Lei felt that it was very helpful. First of all, smart switches are still much cheaper than other smart appliances. The most entry-level one is only a few dozen yuan, and the threshold for users to try out is relatively low. At the same time, the installation and use of the product is relatively simple. You can directly replace the original switch at home and easily obtain an intelligent experience such as remote control. What's more, you can directly purchase smart socket plugged in an ordinary row, which can also realize the functions of timing switch, remote control, etc.
Through smart switches, a cheap and simple product, it allows more users to contact and experience the convenience brought by smart products, and gradually form dependencies, which can greatly help the popularization of concepts and the growth of product sales. In addition, the smart switch can also achieve simultaneous control of several products and support scenario-based settings, which can greatly improve the control experience of smart home appliances, solve the problem of too many devices becoming complicated by the operation, and can also attract users to add more smart devices to their homes.
(Photo source: Oribo official)
Of course, it is still very difficult to promote the popularization of smart home appliances by relying solely on products like smart switches. First, there are some shortcomings of the smart switch product itself that have not been solved yet, such as the device connecting to the distribution network and the occasional failure, etc. The smart switch must be made easier and more useful in order to be recognized and accepted by more consumers. Second, the price of smart switches is generally high, and the cheapest ones are the most introductory styles, which do not necessarily meet the expectations of most people. Therefore, brands still need to reduce the prices of mid-to-high-end products so that everyone can easily afford them, so as to accelerate the popularization of smart switches and drive the development of the smart home appliance industry.
Finally, smart switches and smart home appliances are convenient for young people, but they may make the elderly unable to start and do not know how to use them. After all, some products are touch-controlled, not as direct as traditional mechanical switches. Therefore, smart switches may also need to find ways to simplify the control steps, or complete the "aging-friendly" as soon as possible, so that the elderly can also understand how to use them. Of course, the product can add a "professional model" to allow users who like to toss to gain higher autonomy, freely set various parameter modes, etc. to meet the needs of different consumer groups.
(Photo source: Xiaomi official)
Accelerated development of smart switches does have many benefits to the popularization of smart home appliances, but the process is also full of difficulties and needs to be overcome one by one.Of course, driven by the tide of the times, these problems will be easily solved, and the rise of smart home appliances has become an irresistible trend.
Summary
The smart switch should be the smallest unit in the whole-house intelligent system, and it is also the hub that connects various home appliances in series. It can divide the large network of whole-house intelligence into multiple small networks to achieve the purpose of decentralized and multi-point distributed control . The importance of smart switches is self-evident, and it will definitely have great development potential in the future. However, if smart switches are to be put into use, the entire smart home appliance industry still needs to be involved, and it is difficult to rely on one type of product alone. Therefore, the current focus is to increase the popularity and penetration rate of smart home appliances, so as to contribute to the sustainable development of the smart switch market.
