From March 14th to 17th, the 2024 China Home Appliances and Consumer Electronics Expo (awe2024) was held. With the theme of "Smart Technology, Creating and Enjoying Life", this exhibition focused on presenting high-end, customized, and scenario-based smart IoT Life solutions and innovations in smart appliances, smart homes, consumer electronics and other fields.
"awe2024 showcases cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, 5G, cloud computing, and big data, and showcases the latest achievements in the development of the home appliance industry, allowing us to see the bright prospects of smart homes in the future." President of China Light Industry Federation Zhang Chonghe said.
Zhang Chonghe, President of China Light Industry Federation. Photo courtesy of the organizer
ai meets home appliances, ar is gaining momentum
The application of artificial intelligence and other technologies in the field of home appliances and consumer electronics has become the focus of awe2024, with various companies actively deploying large artificial intelligence models. Sichuan Changhong released Changhong Yunfan, a smart home appliance AI platform based on large models.
Gree Electric uses the air conditioner as the home IoT ecological center, integrating intelligent hub, large screen interaction, AI voice, and entertainment resources. It connects the whole house appliances through the AI screen to control the indoor climate in real time.
Hisense releases self-developed Xinghai large model. Li Wei, President of Hisense Video, said that in the new AI+ era, Hisense TV will accelerate the TV AI process around the three cores of AI+ display, AI+ experience, and AI+ scenarios.
From secret card electronic locks, fingerprint electronic locks to cat-eye locks, smart door locks are evolving. Tcl 3D face large screen cat eye smart lock combines AI+3D face recognition technology to greatly improve the recognition pass rate.
"AI is very hot and a panacea. Technological innovation must focus on consumers' experience needs and pain points, because the starting point of technological innovation is the user." said Sun Li, chief technology officer of Tcl Industry.
In addition to AI, more and more home appliance companies are participating in VR, AR and other fields. Skyworth brings two major types of MR and AR products covering the XR field. Thunderbird Innovation brings AR glasses, among which Thunderbird x2 lite is equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon AR1 chip and integrates AI large model capabilities.
ar is gaining momentum, and an IDC consulting report shows that China’s ar/vr headsets will ship 725,000 units in 2023, a year-on-year decrease of 39.8%. Among them, 262,000 AR units were shipped, a year-on-year increase of 154.4%; VR shipments were 463,000 units, a year-on-year decrease of 57.9%.
Tao Xiaonian, chairman of the China Home Appliances Industry Association, mentioned, “Currently, consumers pay more attention to the quality, health, environmental protection and intelligence of products. Therefore, home appliance companies need to continue to innovate and use technology to enhance the added value of their products to meet their needs. The diversified needs of consumers."
mini led TV has become the protagonist, and the influx of e-sports displays
color TV is one of the traditional exhibition categories. This year's awe focuses on "technology", "artistic" and "scenario-based" to provide industry and Consumers bring innovative products and solutions built on diverse scenarios.
tcl Industrial exhibited its QD-mini LED TV, and also brought two ultra-large screen TV products, a 163-inch micro LED giant screen TV and a 115-inch QD-mini LED TV; Huawei brought a smart screen V5 mini LED TV.
Hisense brought mini LED TV, as well as laser TV and micro LED scene display; Skyworth exhibited mini LED TV a5d pro and wallpaper TV; Changhong also brought mural + series TV and Changhong game viewing TV.
Since 2024, brands such as Thunderbird and Coukaa have successively launched mini LED products. Total data pushed by Aowei Cloud shows that in January 2024, China's color TV mini LED market expanded further, with retail sales of 106,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 146.7%.
Aowei Cloud Network analysts said that the color TV industry is currently deep in the stock market, and major companies are "betting" on display technology to stimulate consumers' replacement needs. The entry of multi-brand players and the continuous introduction of new brands will bring broader development space to the mini LED market.
"Mini LED technology will be rapidly popularized in China and even around the world, and will enter a stage of rapid growth from the original high-end technology." Lu Chunshui, general manager of Tcl Industrial China Marketing Division, believes.
In recent years, consumer demands have become more vertically segmented, and e-sports display has become the competitive direction of color TV companies. TCL invited League of Legends professional players to come to the scene to interact with e-sports players, and Hisense became the official partner of the 2024 Honor of Kings Professional League.
Aowei Cloud Network analysts said that more and more mass consumption decision-making factors have shifted from "function first" to "scenario is king", from "brand first" to "value first", and enterprises have also maximized their Cater to the diverse segmented needs of consumers.
awe2024 live. Photo provided by the company
Kitchen appliances are becoming more integrated, and ice-washing technology competes
In recent years, the importance of scenario-based driving in the refrigerator industry has become more prominent, and companies have provided different embedded solutions. Rongsheng refrigerator brings a new concept of flush-mounted refrigerator, and Hisense launches fully built-in refrigerator. Traditional kitchen appliance brands such as FOTILE and ROBAM cross-border built-in refrigerators to create a full kitchen scene.
At the same time, refrigerator freshness preservation technology has also become the focus of competition among various companies. Haier Smart Home brings magnetic control cold freshness technology, Gree Jinghong refrigerator has photosynthetic hydrating freshness preservation technology, Changhong Meiling has water molecule activation freshness preservation technology, and Coolka refrigerator has The entire cabin is equipped with ultra-clean fresh-keeping technology.
At this year's AWE, Shan Lingxuan, deputy general manager of TCL Industrial White Home Appliances BU, and Zhou Sijian, director of TCL Refrigerator Pre-Research Institute, respectively launched technology releases focusing on the "Super Tube Technology" of TCL washing machines and "Molecular Preservation+" of TCL refrigerators.
Analysts at Aowei Cloud Network said that customized full-embedded services for refrigerators are in the ascendant. The continuous innovation and deepening of product preservation technology not only endows refrigerators with health and safety attributes, but also provides high-quality guarantee for users' healthy lifestyles.
At this year's AWE, many brands launched washing machines with a cleaning ratio of 1.2, successfully breaking through the bottleneck of 1.1 cleaning ratio of traditional washing machines in the past. The washing machine market is expected to usher in new growth space in the future, and the improvement brought by parameters is expected to bring premium prices , creating opportunities for structural upgrading of the industry.
The trend of integrated and intelligent kitchen appliances is strengthening. Vantage released a new generation integrated cooking center with a kitchen air management system; Changhong also released a new integrated cooking center product; Fotile released a self-developed panoramic cooking assistance system, providing a set of automatic cooking solutions.
2023 is the first year of the explosion of integrated cooking centers. Aowei Cloud monitoring data shows that in 2023, the retail sales of the online integrated cooking center - stove, steam and grill will increase by 139.6% year-on-year. At present, this emerging track has formed a "2+n" pattern with Fotile and Vantage leading the way.
Channel changes stimulate endogenous power
Cleaning appliances attracted a lot of attention at last year's exhibition. This year's exhibition scale is also not small, with brands such as Tianke, Chuimi, 3i, Airmate, and Puppy Appliances making collective appearances. Zhuimi Technology unveiled a variety of new smart cleaning products such as sweeping robots, smart floor scrubbers, wireless vacuum cleaners, and lawn mowing robots. Cloud Whale and Fluorite also brought cleaning robots.
This year's AWE also has many features. Huawei and Skyworth brought automotive products, and Hisense showed off automotive display scenes. The high-end forum of the exhibition also focused on promoting the implementation of national trade-in policies, sustainable development of the industry, and new consumption of home appliances.
"The home appliance industry must promote the deep integration of industrial digitalization, intelligence and greening, strengthen process innovation, implement process reengineering, improve the sustainable manufacturing system, and use digital technology to empower all aspects of production to improve quality and efficiency." Zhang Chonghe express.
At the awe2024 site, live broadcast anchors appeared at many booths. In the e2 Living Appliances, Small Kitchen Appliances Hall, e3 Environmental Appliances, and Meijian Personal Care Electrics Hall, many small and medium-sized home appliance brands are more down-to-earth. Live broadcasts, cloud placement stall.
Analysts at Aowei Cloud Network believe that under the secondary impact of online sales and live broadcast sales driven by the Internet, most categories of small kitchen appliances have entered a saturation period, and brands have to find new ones on the basis of ensuring existing categories. Increment.
"At the exhibition, we can see that the product displays of many brands have great differences in product categories, including random trend combinations of small kitchen appliances, small personal care appliances, and small environmental appliances, trying to find growth in a saturated market." Ao Weiyun.com analysts said.
Enterprises are also stimulating endogenous power. Hisense Group President Yu Zhitao released the Hisense brand renewal and upgrade strategy to strengthen connections with users with the highest quality of human-oriented technology. "It embodies the direction and guidance of Hisense's technology research and development towards humanization, scenario-based and experience-based development, and will continue to extend from family life to smart cities, smart buildings, smart transportation and other diverse scenarios."
"2024 China Home Appliance Retail and Innovation White Paper" mentioned that the current Chinese home appliance retail channels have been completely fragmented, and the voice of a single channel has gradually declined. However, in the process of transformation, different channels have used their strengths and avoided weaknesses, relying on their own unique advantages to consolidate The right to speak, while constantly bringing new development opportunities to the industry.
Beijing News Shell Finance reporter Chen Weicheng
Editor Huang Xinyu
Proofreader Liu Jun
