Global Key Insights of Growing Connected Appliances Ecosystem

A huge business eco-system of connected appliances is emerging

It is projected that in 2022, 236 million units of connected appliances will be sold globally. In addition to the appliances industry, multiple industries from upstream to downstream have been driving connected appliances development. To provide convenience to consumers, cross-industry collaboration is critical to ensure common standards, matching chips and brand-agnostic OS, to drive interoperability of connected appliances from different companies.

Artificial intelligence will make connected appliances smart

Most current connected appliances require humans to control them and make decisions. In order to develop connected appliances so as to become smart, artificial intelligence (AI) is required to embed a “brain” in the appliances. With the “brain”, the appliances can learn the user’s habits, offer advice and help reduce the time required for household chores.

The integrated connected home will be the future

Most current connected appliances are controlled individually by smartphones. Integrated connected home solutions will be the future, eliminating the need to control appliances individually. There will be different key scenarios, such as the connected kitchen, the connected living room, etc. For example, in the connected kitchen, different kitchen appliances will coordinate with each other to offer a seamless cooking experience to consumers.

There will be no absolute hardware centre in the connected home

The long debate over the connected home hardware centre reflects cross-industry business conflicts. To compete for the hardware centre, electronics firms advertise smartphones and TVs, while appliance companies promote connected appliances, such as fridge freezers. Retailers such as Amazon also hope to get a foothold via wireless speakers. Analysis suggests that there is no hardware product suitable as a centre for all scenarios. Instead, the OS with AI will be the centre, co-ordinating multiple products.