With AI-enabled active skills, will home appliance sets replace all existing home appliances?

Over the past few decades, the way home appliances are used has not changed much: they function in their respective scenarios, and different categories remain completely independent of each other.

All of this has become a matter of course, but it has quietly changed in recent years. With the advent of the Internet and the wave of intelligence, information has entered this mature category as a new thing, and people seem to finally be able to use home appliances in a different way. However, all early adopters know that home appliances have not yet been fully integrated with information technology, and there is still a long way to go.

From air conditioners, washing machines, refrigerators to TVs, almost all home appliances on the market can be connected to the Internet and have information technology. However, a considerable number of them only have a mobile phone app control interface in addition to traditional buttons, and have not gone further in terms of intelligent interaction and platform experience. Information is not exchanged between home appliances, and there is no AI-driven active intelligence, so high-quality scene interaction is naturally out of the question.

The pain point of the smart home appliances being too "empty" is about to be solved, I think: On March 9, at the spring new product launch conference held by TCL, TCL Lingxi's full range of AI home appliances was officially launched. It covers the most commonly used black and white appliances in China, and integrates smart home led by smart locks and smart screen switches. TCL, which has already made many achievements, has ushered in another upgrade of its full range of AI home appliances.

AI empowers scenario-based interaction, bringing new opportunities for home appliance sets

Before we delve into TCL's full range of AI home appliances, let's first look at the current opportunities and challenges facing home appliances and the entire home appliance industry.

1. Users call for improvement in four dimensions

Purchasing individual appliances is a common form of home appliance consumption among Chinese people. So why have they started to pay more attention to home appliances sold as sets in recent years?

TCL, which has nearly 40 years of experience in electrical appliance manufacturing and sales, found the reason after conducting in-depth market research: the four dimensions of intelligence, coolness, health and beauty that contemporary home appliance consumers care about most can be met with better quality by set home appliances, and users can also obtain a lifestyle that is ahead of the public through them.

First of all, the set of home appliances is unified. It can maintain a high level of unity in appearance with the entire home decoration style, rather than the mess and disorder that appears after purchasing a single item. It can be both cool and beautiful. After the popularization of network capabilities, there is also a unified account system for management. Consumers can view and control home appliances with just one registration, which lays a good foundation for intelligence and health.

There are not many home appliance manufacturers that can provide a good smart experience, but they are the ones that can most influence the daily use of new technologies. Now is the era of AI, and home appliances should actively provide AI-based interactive experiences, such as seamless and caring linkage, and caring about the diet and personal health of family members. With the above "foundation", set home appliances have more advantages in scenarios such as information flow, interconnection, and background sharing.

2. Home appliances are stuck in the “from having to being good” stage

The history of set home appliances in China is only more than ten years: initially, each manufacturer focused on the category it was best at, and consumers purchased individually without the concept of sets; then, leading companies emerged in the industry, and small sets based on specific scenarios also began to appear, such as the "three-piece kitchen appliance set"; it was not until the last ten years that home appliance manufacturers have had the ability to develop multiple categories, and the full set has come into people's sight.

It can be said that both traditional home appliance manufacturers and new generation Internet home appliance manufacturers have the ability to launch home appliance sets. However, after solving the problem of "whether there are sets or not", whether the home appliance sets can be "good" can show the differences in technology and ideas among manufacturers.

Traditional home appliance manufacturers are veterans in the Chinese home appliance market and are also the first batch of manufacturers to promote home appliance sets. They have accumulated a lot of product quantity and rich categories. However, their smart steps are stumbling. There are few easy-to-use mobile phone apps. Consumers often still use their products as ordinary home appliances, not to mention the full-scenario experience of connecting TVs, refrigerators and other devices.

Internet home appliance manufacturers that have entered the market in recent years have good app experiences at the level of Internet product development and have been recognized by some users. However, these manufacturers are "asset-light" and lack comprehensive home appliance R&D capital. The products they produce cater to the preferences of some users but are far from being strong in terms of hardware, and few of them provide comprehensive interactive experiences based on scenarios.

Because of their shortcomings in terms of functions and expansion, most of the home appliance sets launched by these manufacturers are just products that expand peripheral control through apps, and are still a long way from the most cutting-edge active scene interaction in the entire industry. If you want to claim that you are a "real set", you may have to think twice.

While the market for complete sets of home appliances is in chaos, TCL has taken a different approach. Relying on its smart technology and its proposed AI×IoT strategy, it has become a leader in the field of complete sets of AI home appliances, which represents the future direction.

3. TCL is worth choosing for breaking through the home appliance market with AI

Judging from the TCL press conference, its Lingxi full range of AI home appliances consists of 8 major products, covering almost all aspects of daily household use: C12 quantum dot Mini LED smart screen, C12 rapid cooling smart screen refrigerator, C12 duplex classification washing machine, C12 smart fresh air air conditioner, C12 dual gentle wind air conditioner, C12 smart screen integrated stove, C12 AI camera smart lock, and C12 Mini smart screen switch.

Each single product of TCL Lingxi's full range of AI home appliances is quite powerful. Take the TCL C12 Quantum Dot Mini LED Smart Screen as an example. It has all kinds of high-end configurations, including Mini LED that takes into account both picture quality and life, 120Hz+MEMC, Onkyo HIFI speakers. In addition to the parameters, TCL also provides an equally powerful interactive experience. You can use air gestures to operate and can also project the screen of up to 4 mobile phones in real time. Similar detailed interactions can be found in TCL Lingxi's full range of AI home appliances.

Secondly, the set experience of TCL Lingxi's full range of AI home appliances is stronger. It is not only the "horizon" family design outlined by the main color of earth gray, but also the full-scene AI that allows daily use to achieve a perfect integration. From the kitchen's quick-cooling smart screen refrigerator to the living room's Mini LED smart screen, the music video that the user is enjoying can be synchronized and seamlessly switched between multiple smart screens without any interruption. After selecting a recipe on the quick-cooling smart screen refrigerator, the smart screen integrated stove can be synchronized immediately and start detailed step-by-step voice teaching.

It is precisely because of the full-scenario home appliance capabilities enabled by AI that users can get a better smart and beautiful experience.

Is mastering hard power a necessary option for good home appliances?

As we have seen with the AI ​​full-scene experience, TCL's full range of AI home appliances is very special in the home appliance market in 2021. However, it is somewhat surprising that TCL's "heaviest asset" in home appliances is not just the product level.

1. Strength is the only way to become a leader

The most visible thing is TCL's "screen strength". CSOT, which is closely related to TCL, is becoming the leader in China's screen production. TCL is also one of the major manufacturers that can provide the best quality Mini LED TVs in the world. With micron-level light control, high contrast and other technical indicators, it has brought high-definition and high-quality smart TVs to more families.

Zhonghuan Semiconductor also provides TCL home appliances with more reliable, high-performance and more accurate "independent chips". Then there is TCL Honghu Laboratory, which provides high-performance AI×IoT capabilities for the group's entire product line, truly realizing the interconnection of multiple categories of home appliances after the intelligence of single products, and has the potential to redefine "home and home appliances".

TCL Lingxi's full range of AI home appliances already reflects the strength of TCL Group: TCL C12 Quantum Dot Mini LED Smart Screen has evolved again based on the already popular TCL Mini LED technology, and the screens of refrigerators, integrated stoves, and smart screen switches also benefit from it; chips and AI technology allow whole-house smart control, home security, and audio-visual experience to exist in a more user-friendly form. Users can manage all home appliances on the TV and switches, and can also view monitoring on their mobile phones or make video calls with the TV.