“2026 will definitely be the first year for the explosion of whole-house intelligence.” Behind this conclusion is the turning point in the cycle of China’s smart home industry from “trying early adopters of technology” to “experience is king”.
When AIoT technology integration enters the deep water area, China’s smart home industry is experiencing a profound transition from “hardware stacking” to “operating system level ecology”.
According to the China Business Industry Research Institute’s forecast, China’s smart home appliance market will exceed 833.5 billion yuan in 2026, with shipments of whole-house smart devices expected to reach 300 million units, with a penetration rate exceeding 35%.
However, scale expansion has not eliminated the chronic disease of ecological fragmentation, and an “ecological war” surrounding the 800 billion market has begun.
Looking at the current smart home market, a “pyramid” competition pattern has been formed, with the three major camps each showing its own capabilities.
The technology ecology represented by Xiaomi and Huawei, relying on their advantages in operating systems and user base, are trying to define interconnection standards – Xiaomi’s AIoT platform has more than 1 billion connected devices, and Huawei’s Hongmeng Smart Home has 182 million connected devices.
The traditional manufacturing faction with Haier and Midea as its core relies on supply chain and full-category coverage capabilities to develop scenario-based services. Midea’s smart home business gross profit margin reached 28.52%, and Haier Smart Home’s engineering channel revenue accounted for 54.3%; while the vertical specialist faction represented by Oribo and Tuya Smart built technical barriers in segmented fields, and the Tuya Smart PaaS platform has served more than 4,000 manufacturers.
The key turning point occurred in March 2026, when the Global Smart IoT Alliance joined forces with seven giants including Haier, Midea, and Huawei to release the “Smart Home Unified Interconnect Series Standard” (OneConnect).
This set of “Chinese version of Matter” standards directly addresses the pain points of cross-brand interconnection, marking the industry’s shift from “scale competition” to “value synergy.”
As technology matures and costs drop, smart homes are accelerating from “high-end early adopters” to “mass popularization”.
Different from the exclusive luxury homes in the past, the new products and systems released by various brands have broken through space and time constraints this year.
Whether it’s Haier’s “same-day installation, same-day use”, “can be used even if the network is disconnected”, “ordinary modules can be added to achieve intelligent scene connection”, “old home appliances can become smart in seconds”; or Huawei’s 24-hour smart modification, no need to break the wall and no wiring, suitable for old houses; and Greenmi Aqara’s seamless access to Apple Home, they are all product hardware and service software guarantees for whole-house intelligence to enter more homes.
Price parity is the prerequisite for wide-scale inclusive whole-house intelligence, and it is also the key to digging into the light-loading and after-loading markets.
In this year’s lightly installed or renovated plans of various brands, we can see that whole-house smart products have been adjusted from the price range of hundreds of thousands to entry-level solutions of less than 10,000 yuan, to mid-range plans of 30,000 to 50,000 yuan, and to high-end customized products of 100,000+. Whole-house smart devices have entered an era of comprehensive price “equal rights”.
With no wiring, fast delivery, scenario-specific packages, and price parity, after solving the pain points and high price thresholds of intelligent transformation of existing houses, a new inclusive era of whole-house intelligence is opening up.
In Chengdu, whole-house smart homes are gradually penetrating into the new home market.
A typical example is Jinmao Mansion and its twelve technological systems. The project uses capillary network radiation system, ground source heat pump system, efficient building envelope and insulation system, etc. to create an ideal living experience that is like spring all year round.
The “Six Sense Intelligent System” pioneered by Beichen S1 in the Financial City uses Huawei’s Hongmeng Smart Home system as the core fulcrum. Each household is connected to 19 categories of smart devices, including more than 110 master control devices and more than 200 controlled devices. It truly realizes the whole house interconnection. The owner only needs a voice command, and the indoor lighting, temperature, and fresh air will be synchronously switched to the corresponding mode.
The new green J57 Peninsula is customized and implanted into a wired network transmission smart home system in the early stage. It improves stability through scene matrix design, uses intelligent air boxes to monitor air quality in real time, and switches multi-scenario modes with one click, etc., to avoid possible delays and disconnection problems in unlimited transmission.
As for the whole-house smart brands, Huawei, Lumi, Oribo, etc. have all opened a number of experience stores in Chengdu. Just recently (March 29), Lumi Aqara’s parent company Aqara International Ltd submitted a prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and plans to list on the Hong Kong main board.
It is reported that Lumi was founded in 2009. It is an important player in Xiaomi’s ecological chain and a national-level specialized and new key small giant enterprise. Its business covers its own brand of Lumi brand space smart products and solutions as well as ODM product business for Xiaomi.
The prospectus shows that the company was valued at US$850 million (approximately 5.884 billion yuan) after the D round of investment in September 2021.
