After the bubble, icebergs and flames of intelligent hardware

When you come to Shenzhen, you will soon discover that this place, known as Hardware Hollywood, has obviously no last year's passion in the air . You can say that entrepreneurs are more rational and they are willing to settle down and think about something, but what I think more about is frustration. After the powerless. Looking back, regardless of investors, entrepreneurs or the media, in 2013 and early 2014, everyone was crazy about smart hardware as much as the Internet bubble of 2000. All the hot money, the enthusiasm of all entrepreneurs and the media's strokes were Into this direction, but more than a year later, the bubble burst.

Misfit, Mai Kai, Yun Yue, Picooc... were companies that got money to make good products, and other days of smart hardware products that were once well-known may not be so good. I learned that some have made Prototype, but can not be mass production, and some production, and yield is less than 50%, or the hardware is a problem, or the algorithm is too inaccurate. One time, Mr. Cheng Chengtian, he told me that when he wore a well-known bracelet, he showed a strenuous exercise when throwing a hand, but he took a rest while strenuous exercise. Although many wearable products claim to be accurate, you don't really know who to trust. Sometimes a pair of watch hands slips to measure heart rate and breathing, and each test result is different.

At the end of the hardware, it is production that really enlists entrepreneurs to recruit deadly attacks! Those who used to study or come from Kyoto have a sense of superiority in their own identity. They think the factory is a local bun and they think that they want to let people play with you with their sparkling identity. The factory talks about whether or not it's fun or not, what people want are orders! Intelligent hardware is a new thing for the factory, and there will be uncertainty and uncontrollability in the process of exploration. Although these two factors are often accompanied by innovation, But the factory pursues the stability of income. Especially for small factories, they need to survive and need to raise workers. Maybe at first, it will feel curious because we think everyone is doing smart hardware. But when the toy affects its normal income, it will not hesitate to abandon it. A few hundred one-off deals will make them suffer. If they can't see your future, they won't play with you. Even if you are willing to play with you, you do not necessarily have the strength to make a good product. In this face-seeing world, no matter how connotative it is, it will still look at the face. The products with poor appearance will not win the favor of consumers anyway.

So someone looked to Foxconn and thought that there were big plants who would endorse it. If you look at Tuman and Yihang Airlines, you should know what's going on. For such a big manufacturer, smart hardware is not its main business. It may be just to keep an eye on the front and explore the frontier. It just doesn't want to be left behind by the times. That's it. It will not focus on good resources to support you to do this thing. Therefore, the startup company is completely in an unequal state and has no right to speak in the process of cooperation with it. What a smart watch makes and designs is a world away from each other. He recently decided to set up a production line in Yizhuang to produce his own product, and the other one had a poor product rate. Foxconn will not be low-profile to focus on such a small team.

When the assaulting students burst out vomiting blood, most of the spectators who eagerly tried to retreat. TechSpace's founder, Shang Song, said: "There is a river between the tryers and the waiters. The current situation is that on the side of the tryers, some people are hitting their heads and blood, and those who want to start a business will not dare to cross the river. "The opposite is too cold and people are afraid to approach. So that investment people have a kind of project anxiety.

The situation presented a great contrast to the OEMs and internet giants who had never moved. They were like awake beasts, and they got up and shook their necks to prepare for a big fight. They all concentrated on this year. From the visual data, according to the time of the name, the proportion of the projects they receive, the startup companies and the big companies, is now in half; while in Huaqiang, which is local in Shenzhen, the proportion has risen to 30%, of which the OEM manufacturers account for 20 %, large companies in transition accounted for 10%; even in crowdfunding networks where hardware entrepreneurs get together, this proportion has also increased to 10%, the higher the proportion is. Although it is a partial understanding of the situation, it is enough to manage the situation.

The large-scale Internet companies such as BAT, Xiaomi, 360, and LeTV are all aware of the layout of their smart hardware. For the time being, they are not mentioned. In fact, they are more not so big. They are not so many listed companies, but large and unnamed traditional companies and foundry factories are Another huge group that cannot be ignored. Among them, some were formerly outsourcing companies that helped people with hardware solutions, some were former companies that used to make enterprise-level numerical control products, and some were factories that were doing OEM work for overseas companies. Their products might be temperature control, watches, Smart lights.

For example, it is a general-purpose router to create a galaxy for air purifiers; Yifang Digital for tablet computers and other digital products to make smart watches; and Desai for making smart cars for electronic cars and ICs; and struggling to enter intelligence. Shunzhou home technology ... ... Of course, there are a bunch of Huaqiang North you can not name but have a wealth of hardware experience foundries.

These enterprises have a common feature, and they can also be said to be weak. They can realize that in the past, there was a way to channel products, and the way in which people rushed to make a fortune became increasingly inconsistent with the mainstream, and they were eager to shape their own brands. Do not know how to build their own awareness and brand, so gave birth to a number of brands such as Huaqiang Yungu and market planning outsourcing companies, even some time ago also announced that it abandoned crowdfunding, more inclined to packaging and marketing. In addition to relying on existing channels and outsourcing, they have also become keen to participate in various offline online activities, promote crowdfunding, and start using social platforms such as WeChat and Weibo.

However, the advantages of these factories are that, on the one hand, listed companies that used to be enterprise-level products and ordinary large-scale traditional enterprises in the past have other product revenues to support the development of the intelligent hardware business. There are enough funds to try something wrong. Entrepreneurs like to worry about the survival or death of this irritating problem. On the other hand, most of these companies have accumulated in the hardware field before. They are familiar with the industrial chain issues of hardware products and make fewer mistakes in hardware production. When they regained consciousness, they blinked in the direction of the fallen entrepreneurs. They saw the intriguing ocean of intelligent hardware. The fire of passion grew even stronger.

With the expansion of this cold and hot difference, a new pattern is emerging. Start-up companies are gradually leaving the company. Large companies gradually step on stage and the protagonist has changed candidates. Unlike many people think that the field of smart hardware is a paradise for makers, I think that this field is similar to any other field, is the home of big organizations, and is more cruel to start-up companies. On the Internet, a small company may be Relying on its own strong execution power and the flexibility of a small company, it quickly smashed away from the big companies behind the plagiarism, quickly growing into giants such as Google and Facebook, but in the field of smart hardware, because of the long cycle of hardware manufacturing itself, All kinds of resource requirements are also very strong. The two major advantages of the startup companies on the Internet, speed and flexibility cannot be brought into play at this time, so it is not easy to have an opportunity. Of course, I do not oppose that some of them will have opportunities in the long tail market. This view.

If you really want to say that this is their paradise, I would rather understand it. Organizations like Seeed, Fablab, and Arduino provide various modular tools for DIY-like Geek, allowing them to create their own gadgets, such as Build your own cars, do your own robots, freely change lights around your own aircraft, add cameras, etc. From the DIY process, they feel fun, do not care about survival, do not care about sales, of course, this time, you just and other Like ordinary consumers, it is a maker, not an entrepreneur.

Finally, Tucao couldn't help but the start-up companies gradually shrank back, but why did anyone continue to do intelligent hardware incubators? Presumably, they think that smart hardware is a trend, but they don't know what to do, but they have to do something.