The AWE boom has just passed, and we can sniff some trends in the development of the home appliance industry from this exhibition - IoT and artificial intelligence AI. It is undisputed that the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence have become hotspots in the technology industry. Under the premise of the continuous development of the Internet of Things, the actual distance of smart homes is not out of reach. At least we can feel some "smart" around us. "The presence.

As a relatively fast-moving single item in the field of smart home and smart security, smart door locks have gradually evolved under the Internet of Things.

In the era of the Internet of Things, smart door locks not only have the functions of fingerprint unlocking and password unlocking, but exist as a home networking portal or an important node. With the ability to connect, smart door locks can be made more and there will be more innovative applications. In addition to ensuring home security, it also provides users with a comfortable and convenient home experience.

Under the general trend of the Internet of Things, smart door locks have a tendency to break out, but if you just add some "pseudo-intelligence" functions, it is far from enough. If you really want to fire, you still have a lot of foundations and conditions. .

Smart door lock enters the outbreak period

Let us first look at a set of data. At present, the total output value of China's lock industry is about 60 billion yuan, and the total output value of the smart door lock industry has exceeded 6 billion yuan in 2016. There are about 600 million gates in China. If a lock has a life span of about 10 years, more than 50 million locks will need to be replaced each year, and there is data showing that the penetration rate of smart door locks in China is less than 3%.

In contrast, the market penetration rate in Europe, America, Japan and South Korea has reached 50% and 80%. China has a population of 1.4 billion and 400 million households, and nearly 97% of households will have the need to replace smart door locks. This will be a huge market.

According to market research organizations, starting from 2016, the number of smart door locks based on biometrics and networking can reach 3 million, and the market size will increase at least twice in 2017, which is expected to reach 6-7 million. It is predicted that by 2020, the scale of the entire smart door lock will reach 60 million.

It is undeniable that in 2017 the entire door lock circle seems to have entered the outbreak and boom of smart door locks.

Among them, there are several obvious features. The first is that the sales of smart door locks have exceeded 4 million, and the industry output value has exceeded the 10 billion mark. The second is the brand expansion of smart door locks. The number of lock manufacturers has nearly 2,000; the third is that the smart door lock market has entered the capital market, and many door lock startups have obtained various financing.

I believe many people have the impression that there are many smart door lock products that have launched various crowdfunding on our daily platforms. Take Yunding Technology Loock Touch and ORVIBO Ou Ruibo T1 as examples. Their crowdfunding amount has exceeded 1000. Ten thousand yuan.

Under a series of crowdfunding, more than 10 startup companies have joined the market, while the traditional home appliances of Haier, Midea, TCL, etc. have begun to be laid out, while security brands such as Dahua, Haikang, and Lenovo in IT Purple, etc. have gradually joined, and finally Internet companies have begun to set foot on this battlefield.

Consumer enthusiasm is lit

With the concept of IoT intelligence becoming more and more popular, the smart door lock is also known to many consumers. According to surveys, more than 85% of consumers have heard of smart door locks, and more than 70% of young consumers are willing to try smart door locks. It is foreseeable that with the renovation of a new house after 80 and 90, the use of smart door locks will become logical.

The difference between intelligent door locks and traditional mechanical locks is mainly in terms of user identification, security, and management. The former will be more intelligent. At present, there are several types of door locks, such as mechanical locks, induction locks, password locks, and fingerprint locks, which are sold in our domestic market. The functional principle and technical application of each product are different.

At present, consumers use the most common mechanical locks. Inductive locks and password locks are often used in business and public spaces. Door locks used in hotel rooms are induction locks, and many companies choose password locks for door control. .

Smart door locks should be based on adequate security, set up a complete security system with other security products, and access more home intelligence applications. Now, it seems that the B-end market conditions of enterprises, public spaces, hotels, etc. Mature, you can build intelligent scenes based on smart door locks, etc. Consumers' C-terminal market related packages enter a perfect stage, and more intelligent scenes are slowly maturing.

The undercurrent behind the prosperity

In the history of the development of door locks, in addition to the evolution of process technology and industrial upgrading, there is no revolutionary change in the actual door locks in terms of product form and basic needs. With the opportunity of the Internet of Things IoT and artificial intelligence AI, the door lock industry has also ushered in a revolutionary opportunity. However, behind the prosperous smart door lock market, there are still many worrying issues.

The market enters the melee phase. Although the annual shipments are expected to reach 4 million+ sets, we will look at this industry and have more than 2,000 manufacturers. The competition in this market is still very strong. The annual sales of most manufacturers did not reach 10,000 sets. Although the industry is developing in a good position, the initial development is still very cruel.

The actual financing of the entire intelligent door lock industry has not been invested. The lack of capital operation will also limit the rapid development of the industry. The door lock industry still has some traditional genes, which are basically provided by upstream suppliers, OEMs and The channel distributors are composed of some platform application development providers, and the intelligence in smart door locks requires the entry of such companies.

The current prosperity of the smart door lock industry is still in a very early stage, and there are some products that lead the industry, indicating the wind vane.

What should a real smart door lock look like?

Door locks For many people, it has always been a very simple hardware accessory and doesn't have much focus. But when it comes to intelligence today, smart door locks have begun to have brand attributes, but also add more convenient and convenient functions, and how to call them smart door locks, which may not have an accurate concept in many people's minds.

We believe that the door lock needs to be intelligent. First, it needs to have the basic attributes of security, followed by intelligent connection, data processing, biometrics, etc. Finally, it needs to have intelligent application scenarios based on Internet of Things and big data analysis.

Most of the door locks now only have the first two capabilities. When it comes to smart application scenarios, this is really not something that a company or a certain enterprise can promote. This requires the platform vendors, industry service providers, and terminal manufacturers to jointly promote.

There are a lot of questions about why smart door locks will fire up in the past two years. In fact, as far as safety functions are concerned, there is not a big difference between a C-lock cylinder's ordinary lock and a C-class lock cylinder. And their difference is the degree of intelligence. Of course, the security of smart door locks is the most basic attribute. If you can't even do security, you don't need to talk about the intelligence behind.

"Now the hardware design of the lock core still has certain technical barriers in the industry", a person from a smart door lock company talked.

However, the door lock industry has been developed for a long time, and technical barriers will inevitably exist. However, there are already certain industry standards for lock cylinders related to safety. Therefore, consumers of safety do not need to worry too much.

Although security is still the most basic requirement of smart door locks, just like the calls on mobile phones, the improvements and functions around the door locks are no longer around security. Consumers have more needs for door locks. The first thing that comes to mind is the convenience and convenience. The development of the Internet, the upgrade of technology has made the door lock and mobile phone the same, with networked hardware to meet the needs of consumers, such as quick opening.

In addition to the basic door locks we need to open and close, there is also a scene that we often encounter: family, friends, security, cleaning aunt, courier brother and other types of unlocking needs, such as hotels Different assignments for scenarios such as apartments, rental houses, etc. These need to meet the needs of different users and different permissions, which is also one of the most important feature development for smart door locks.

With the blessing of intelligent functions, with the characteristics of convenience, identification, and interaction, we need to enter the ecology and scenes, and this requires more software and hardware cooperation and IoT drivers. The definition of intelligent door locks depends on convenient functions, interactive identification and security upgrades, as well as data analysis and processing capabilities, software and hardware system cooperation and intelligent scene applications, which are the elements that constitute a smart door lock.

In recent years, with the development of smart home smart security, smart door locks are no longer only based on some basic functions such as biometric fingerprint unlocking and password unlocking, but have the role of entering as a smart home entrance, in addition to the security guard function. It can also make our life more convenient and comfortable.

Who has the best chance to rise?

As mentioned above, the industry of smart door locks is booming, and traditional lock manufacturers, emerging startups, security giants, and communications and home appliance manufacturers are all involved. Then among those participants, who is the best chance to rise in this wave of door lock intelligence? Then we need to understand certain key conditions first.

In essence, the development trend of smart door locks and business logic are similar to the development of mobile phones. The dominant players must have platforms and software platforms, as well as certain computing analysis and networking capabilities. This is the general door lock manufacturer. What is not available, and at the same time the most important is the scene application service, these are the must for market subversion and rise. Looking back at the traditional manufacturers, they will only continue to work hard on the hardware and physical structure that they are concentrating on.

Intelligent door locks are undeniable and must be an important scene role of the Internet of Things. So new startup Internet companies that are more convenient for research, identification, interaction and system innovation will certainly be more likely to catch smart door locks than other traditional companies. Development opportunities.

At the same time, companies that use smart door lock hardware to drive scenario applications and services are also beneficial to promote the true intelligence of smart door locks. It can be predicted that the next intelligent door lock iteration will inevitably be upgraded by software systems, rich in scene applications and excellent industrial design. Lord, and emerging companies with Internet genes have this advantage.

There are already many emerging startups on the market that have entered the smart door lock industry, such as ORVIBO, Yunding Technology, and Advantage Technology. ORVIBO is the maker of system-level homes, building smart home entrances; Yunding Technology initially focused on smart home security solutions, and then optimized the software capabilities of smart door locks on products such as Luker; Advantages and technology also use smart door locks as an entry point. To create a system-level platform for intelligent security home scenarios.

Although they will have some different development paths, they are all developed in the direction of system-level scene platforms, and they have the same effect.

to sum up

Under the rapid development of the intelligent door lock industry, there are many hidden concerns behind it, and the industry is also waiting for the emergence of leaders. On this road, whether it is a traditional enterprise or an emerging entrepreneurial Internet enterprise, how to develop smart door locks is still full. Unknown, but how to make smart door locks truly intelligent, this may be the core of what we need to think now.

Editor in charge: Cong Yurui