Xiaomi’s first smart home gadgets launch this week, and they look awfully familiar
Earlier this month, Xiaomi showed off a new smart home platform and a series of new gadgets for it to be released on the coming months. This week, the first of those gadgets and the app that will ultimately tie them all together will be released to the public.
The Ants smart webcam is slated to go on sale Wednesday at a price of RMB 149 (US$24.36), according to Xiaomi’s official Weibo account. The “Xiaoyi,” as it’s been dubbed, sports 720p resolution, a 111 degree wide-angle lens with 4x zoom, and the ability to make two-way voice calls. Activated and viewable via the smartphone, it doubles as both a webcam for chatting and a security camera with recording capabilities. The camera automatically records whenever it detects movement in view.
So why did Xiaomi decide to make a fancy webcam? Anyone who follows the company closely knows it’s never the first to create a product. It just makes products that are better and more affordable. These types of smart webcams are all the rage among China’s many young hardware companies right now, as evidenced by their repeat appearances on China’s premier gadget crowdfunding site Demohour. Here’s one that did pretty well, raising nearly RMB 320,000 (US$50,000). And there are many more where that came from.
The Ants webcam is not an isolated case. Smart home devices are a hot trend, and Xiaomi seems to be keeping close tabs on the ones that do well. The Mi Smart Power Plug? Yeah, there have to be at least a dozen of those. This one is in its second generation already. Smart light bulbs? Yep, we got those already, too. And, of course, there’s the remote center that ties them all together. Take. Your. Pick.
This isn’t a recent development in Xiaomi’s smart gadget strategy. That blood pressure monitor it co-launched with iHealth last month? Plenty of those littered throughout China’s crowdfunding sites. And let’s not forget MiKey, an added smartphone button inserted into the headphone jack that’s a clear ripoff of Pressy and Kuai Anniu that massively undercuts them for less than a dollar.
Note that Xiaomi itself didn’t make all these gadgets from scratch, but invested and formed partnerships with existing companies to sell them under the Xiaomi name. And with Xiaomi’s solid brand recognition and network of resources, you can bet all those gadgets will sell for less than their competitors. Xiaomi’s swift forays into the smart home industry might bode well for cash-strapped hardware startups looking for benefactors. And for better or for worse, it will accelerate consolidation in a very fragmented vertical.
So, based on this strategy, what gadgets can we expect Xiaomi to unleash next? Well, a smartwatch isn’t out of the question. Home theater projectors are on fire right now. And China has a never-ending need for air purifiers. Those are all gadgets that China has more than enough yet somehow keep surging past their crowdfunding goals.
Xiaomi isn’t the only company tackling the smart home market, though. Tencent, JD, Baidu, Alibaba, and a handful of others are battling for dominance on their respective protocols and platforms. Xiaomi has an advantage thanks to its experience in making both hardware and software that work in unison, but it’s also a bit late to the game.
しかしスマートホーム市場に取り組んでいるのはXiaomiだけではない。Tencent、JD、Baidu、Alibabaそしてその他数社が各々のプロトコルやプラットホームの優位性を目指して戦っている最中だ。協調して動作するハードウェアとソフトェア両方を作る経験においてXiaomiは優位に立つが、少し参加が遅れた感もある。
そして中国では常に空気清浄器は必要とされている。これらの製品は中国では足りることなく、こういった製品への投資はクラウドファンディングでも必ずと言っていいほどゴールに到達している。
スマートホーム分野に進出しようとする企業はXiaomiだけではない。Tencent、JD、Baidu、Alibabaなどといった企業が、それぞれ独自の計画とプラットフォームで、この分野で優勢を得ようと躍起になっている。その中でXiaomiはハードウェアとソフトウェアの両方の分野での経験がある分、優位に立っている反面、少し出遅れた感もある。
