The homogenization of smart door locks is serious. The reshuffle period of the industry is accelerating the exit of related enterprises

In 2020, due to the impact of the epidemic, sales decreased in a short period of time. With the improvement of the epidemic situation, the heat of smart door locks also tends to warm up.

In recent years, with the vigorous development of Internet technology and artificial intelligence technology, smart home products have begun to enter many consumers' homes. Smart home takes residence as a platform, connects various devices in the home through Internet of Things technology, and integrates facilities related to home life by using integrated wiring technology, network communication technology, security technology, automatic control technology, audio and video technology, and constructs an efficient management system for residential facilities and family schedule affairs to realize an intelligent living environment. Among them, in recent years, the best smart home is the smart door lock.

At present, there are more than 2,000 production enterprises and nearly 3,000+brands in China's smart door lock industry. According to relevant data, in 2018, the sales volume of smart locks in China is between 10 million and 12 million sets; In the first half of 2019, the shipment of smart locks decreased by 5% compared with the shipment in the first half of 2018, with the number of about 7 million sets, and about 14 million sets in the whole year. In terms of the number of enterprises, there is no obvious growth in 2019, but there is a downward trend. However, some cross-border giants are still optimistic about the development prospects of the smart lock industry. For example, Patriot, Fenda Technology and real estate giant Jinmao Lvjian have entered the smart lock industry in 2019. In 2020, due to the impact of the epidemic, sales decreased in a short period of time. With the improvement of the epidemic situation, the heat of smart door locks also tends to warm up.

Products need to keep up with more diversified needs

Due to the substantial improvement of living standards, the consumer demand of users has been changing, from necessity to practicality to quality. With more and more decision-makers of house purchase and decoration after 90 and 00, the concept of pursuing quality and enjoying life will also change the development law of the smart door lock market. Products with a sense of design and quality will be the first competitiveness of the smart door lock market. In addition, more humanization and intelligence will also be the additional competitiveness of smart door lock products.

Since the industry's first mass-produced 3D face recognition smart lock Deschmann R5 was officially launched at the "Deschmann Smart Summit" in April 2019, since then, 3D face recognition smart locks have begun to emerge, and major brands have also launched smart locks with 3D face recognition technology. Compared with 2D face recognition technology, 3D structure recognition technology can read the hot spot information of face in real time through professional floodlight sensing originals, and reverse the depth and position of objects through infrared rays, dot matrix, etc., so as to identify accurately and greatly improve the safety factor of face recognition.

With the arrival of smart home era, simple smart locks can't meet the diversified needs of users. In order to meet the market demand of consumers for "one-stop" shopping, smart locks are gradually integrated into the mainstream of smart home and smart security. Linking with security products such as smart cat's eye, smart visual doorbell and smart camera and supporting docking apps such as Mijia and Tmall Elf are not only smart security items, but also an important part of smart security. Therefore, smart locks are making great efforts.

Price wars and homogenization are serious

Irrational price war leads the intelligent door lock to return to the low-level competition state of price competition. Low price brings low cost, which saves the cost of mold opening by directly adopting male mold production, and then reduces the cost by means of reducing allocation, lowering quality and cutting corners. Or directly imitate explosive products, saving R&D and design costs, and low-level competition directly leads to low-level products.

In addition, the homogenization phenomenon is very serious. At present, the smart door lock industry lacks a strict standard system, and not many enterprises in the industry have established strong technical barriers, which leads to serious homogenization of products in the smart door lock market. The product quality is uneven, the survival method of "rough OEM" and "shoddy" by small manufacturers, and a large number of brands imitate and copy each other in competition, competing for the surplus value of emerging markets instead of focusing on product innovation. Therefore, the development of smart door lock industry has become a bottleneck.

As far as the product itself is concerned, the safety performance of the intelligent door lock needs to be further strengthened. In recent years, problems such as "being trapped at home", "opening the door automatically" and "unlocking in a small black box" have been frequently exposed in smart door locks. For smart door locks, consumers first consider safety, and quality problems of smart door locks frequently appear, and biometric identification function still has loopholes, which makes some consumers wait and see, and users' information and sensitive data are even more discouraged.

Industry reshuffle period accelerates the exit of related enterprises

In terms of brand, at present, the smart lock industry has formed three camps: professional brand, Internet brand and traditional cross-border brand. In the three main camps, the backbone of the industry has changed from the initial focus on professional brands to the tripartite confrontation of the three camps, which gradually shows brand advantages in the smart lock industry. Divided into six camps, they are: traditional lock enterprises, professional smart lock enterprises, home appliance enterprises, Internet technology enterprises, security products enterprises, and e-commerce platforms. The well-known smart lock brands among consumers in all camps are Cadiz, Deshman, Samsung, Midea, Xiaomi, Yunding-Luke, 360, Hikvision, Dahua Le Orange and so on.

At the same time, the reshuffle of the smart lock industry is beginning to take shape. With the smart lock industry gradually getting on the right track, manufacturers with poor quality or no core technology and innovation ability will be naturally eliminated by the market. According to incomplete statistics, at least 350 enterprises were eliminated in 2019, or they took the initiative to leave the smart lock industry. Some people thought that the reshuffle period of China's smart door lock industry would not come until at least 2020. In fact, the reshuffle of the smart door lock industry is already underway, which shows that uncompetitive products cannot stand in the fierce market at all.

Under the situation of chaotic market, low price war and increasingly serious homogenization of products, smart door locks are bound to undergo rounds of industry reshuffle, and finally the survival of the fittest will screen out brand enterprises that can truly meet consumer demand. Doing a good job in product quality control and research and development is the sword for enterprises to compete for the market, while reasonable profits and reasonable succession can enable enterprises to achieve sustainable development. As far as smart door lock manufacturers are concerned, quality, reputation and innovation may be the foundation of the industry.