Hardware with AI, Byte Meituan has a trillion new tracks

Text | Chen Qiaohui

"AI + hardware" is becoming a new direction for Internet giants to explore AI.

Tech Planet exclusively learned,ByteDance’s PICO has been developing a number of wearable devices, including headphones and stereos, since the second half of last year. These devices will also be equipped with AI. These two hardware devices can be found on the China Patent Information Network.

A person close to ByteDance told Tech Planet that PICO has no plans or solutions for AI headphones and speakers. The relevant speaker patents are an entry item in the company’s internal technology innovation competition and have not been put into actual production.

However, the ByteDance team has some exploration based on the combination of big model software and hardware, which is still in its infancy. Tech Planet has learned that the combination of big model software and hardware of the ByteDance team has gradually been applied to learning machines, robot dogs, robots and other hardware devices.

In addition to ByteDance, Tech Planet also exclusively learned that Meituan is also exploring the possibility of combining AI and hardware. It is developing an AI business called "Qiaoyu" and has reached a cooperation with "Little Genius", a children’s wearable device manufacturer. Its self-developed AI voice interactive APP of "Qiaoyu Music Partner" will be installed on the Z10 watch of Little Genius.

In fact, there are not a few Internet platform players who have entered the "AI + Hardware" market. In May last year, Baidu’s Xiaodu launched the first AI learning mobile phone "Qinghe". After a year, Xiaodu launched a new generation of learning machine product Z30, which is the world’s first learning machine based on the ability of Wenxin big model. Recently, at the 2024 iFLYBUDS headset launch conference, iFLYBUDS also launched three AI headphones such as iFLYBUDS Pro2, iFLYBUDS 2 and viaim Kit 2, up the ante AI office.

Internet platforms have entered "AI + hardware" in various ways. If 2023 is the first year of AI software such as ChatGPT, then 2024 may usher in the outbreak of "AI + hardware".

Big companies bet on "AI + hardware"

In the midst of the furious AI entrepreneurship wave in China, some players with a keen sense of smell have begun to pay attention to the direction of "AI + hardware" and regard it as a new business opportunity.

In May 2023, Baidu released Xiaodu Qinghe learning mobile phone, which is equivalent to having six major product functions: mobile phone, dictionary pen, phone watch, translation machine, hearing treasure, and word card. At present, V20, W30 and other styles have been derived.

It is quite surprising that the sales of its AI learning mobile phone is not bad, a small degree JD.com self-operated flagship store priced 699 yuan V20 learning mobile phone, has sold more than 10,000 copies, according to the latest data released by JD.com, this year’s 618 start within 28 hours, small degree Qinghe brand turnover ranking learning mobile phone TOP1.

A year after the release of the Qinghe learning mobile phone, Baidu launched AI large-screen hardware, and last month released the small learning machine Z30, similar to a tablet computer, which is also the first Baidu ERNIE Bot large model learning machine. According to the statistics of Q1 data in 2024, the cumulative number of users of small learning exceeds 2 million, of which the daily user proportion is as high as 50%. The average daily use time of these users exceeds 100 minutes.

Meituan also chose to make efforts in the field of educational hardware, but did not personally make hardware like Baidu, but launched the artificial intelligence voice interactive application "Qiaoyu Music Partner" installed on the wearable device, which is currently installed on the Little Genius Z10 watch.

A dealer told Tech Planet that the Little Genius App Store should be launched in May this year to meet children’s companionship and learning needs, and to promote children’s creativity and knowledge reserve. Children can choose one of the AI partners and chat with them about history, nature, poetry, etc.

ByteDance has chosen to explore AI + hardware through self-research and cooperation. Tech Planet learned that ByteDance began to develop headphones and stereos in the second half of last year, and tried to install AI. Among them, Huang Yan, the inventor of the neck-mounted stereo, is one of the heads of ByteDance’s visual service platform, and has rich experience in AIGC services, LLM large models and other fields.

In addition, Tech Planet also found that ByteDance is recruiting ID designers to be responsible for the industrial design of smart devices, which mentioned that the incubation results are promoted and the team is located in Shenzhen.

In May this year, ByteDance made new progress in the direction of AI + hardware. 36Kr reported that ByteDance acquired headset manufacturer Oladance for about $50 million, and the team is integrating into the ByteDance system. Some media said that ByteDance’s move is because ByteDance management sees the potential of wearable devices to become AIGC’s service platform.

Then, in response to the recent news about ByteDance’s AI hardware, ByteDance officials also responded that the bean bag business is exploring the combination with smart wearable devices to provide users with a more natural and convenient interactive experience.

Tech Planet learned that ByteDance’s bean bag model has been cooperating with multiple hardware manufacturers since the first half of this year, and has opened up bean bag capabilities to various hardware manufacturers. At the Volcano Engine FORCE conference in May this year, it showcased three AI hardware cooperation products, including Azure Robot Dog, Hearing Bear Learning Machine, and a learning robot.

Although some Internet companies do AI + hardware related information, they have also made corresponding investments. At the end of May, Alibaba spent nearly 200 million yuan to invest in Zhejiang Precision Learning Company, which will be used for product research and development and promotion. The company’s first original AI auxiliary learning machine Bong series will be officially released in June.

Competing in a trillion-dollar market

Whether it is market size or user requests, "AI + hardware" has broad prospects, which is also an important reason for the Internet platform to lay out AI hardware.

According to analysts from the China Commercial Industry Research Institute, the size of China’s smart hardware market will reach 1.4031 trillion yuan in 2023 and 1.5033 trillion yuan in 2024.

From the perspective of demand, consumers have a growing demand for intelligent and convenient life and work. AI-empowered hardware products, such as smart home devices, smart wearable devices, and smart office devices, can greatly improve people’s quality of life and work efficiency, satisfying people’s pursuit of high-quality life.

Especially at the beginning of this year, after mobile phone manufacturers such as Apple, Samsung, and Vivo began to propose the concept of AI mobile phones, AI mobile phones have attracted the attention of many consumers.

Internet platforms have also begun to cooperate with these hardware manufacturers to try to catch up with this trend. For example, Alibaba Cloud and VIVO are cooperating in AI, while Xiaomi, Honor, OPPO, VIVO and other manufacturers have connected to Baidu’s Wenxin model API to create AI application scenarios for users.

Market research firm IDC forecasts that global AI mobile phone shipments are expected to reach 170 million in 2024, accounting for about 15% of total smartphone shipments. Flagship mobile phone models are expected to become the main force driving the growth of the AI mobile phone market.

Especially in the domestic market, with the rapid update of AI technology and user usage scenarios, it is expected that the market share of the new generation of AI mobile phones will expand rapidly from 2024. Specifically, the shipment of AI mobile phones in the Chinese market in 2024 is expected to be 37 million units, and by 2027, this number is expected to soar to 150 million units, and the market share is expected to exceed 50%.

In addition to mobile phones, PCs, wearable devices, etc. have also begun to actively embrace AI, and have achieved good results while cooperating with large models of Internet platforms.

This year’s "618", AI hardware has become a new track in the digital 3C category. Take the JD.com platform as an example, it announced 12 AI categories during the "618" period, and also shouted the slogan of prompting super 3 million users to replace new AI devices during the "618" period.

According to the platform’s data, during the "618" period this year, more than 60% of JD.com’s consumers indicated that they had tried or were willing to try new AI products. The AI hardware category represented by AI computers and AI mobile phones saw a year-on-year increase in turnover of more than 200% within 28 hours of the "618" opening.

Can Internet companies do a good job of "AI + hardware"?

It can be found that the Internet platform is divided into two batches of "AI + hardware". One batch is to make AI hardware in person, with self-developed large models and hardware teams, and the other batch is to cooperate with hardware manufacturers to install AI applications adapted to these hardware.

But judging from the current situation, it is not easy for major Internet companies to get a share of the "AI + hardware" market.

For an Internet platform that makes AI hardware in person, unlike being handy in software development, making hardware is not an advantage for an Internet platform.

For example, after ByteDance acquired the rights to use some of Smartisan’s patents in 2019, it used it to explore related businesses in the education field and launched hardware products such as point reading pens and Dali Smart, but the results were not satisfactory. Tech Planet learned that its self-operated store has now closed, and Dali Smart Lights on the market have been sold by a third party called Guangzhou Haobi Trading Co., Ltd.

In addition, some small teams within ByteDance have also explored other hardware devices, such as the wireless charging stand sold by its Rare Earth Nuggets, in the Douyin store, but only one was sold.

And like Tencent before and after made WeChat headphones, QQ music audio, small Q robots, etc., and later by Tencent’s holdings of buying and selling treasure launched big Q mobile phone, equipped with Tencent micro cloud, QQ desktop and other products, but slowly quietly. Alibaba Cloud mobile phone, Tmall magic box and other hardware under Alibaba’s has also been quiet.

Earlier companies such as 360 have been involved in hardware for a long time. They once launched 360 special supplies and Xiaomi PK, as well as portable WiFi, routers, smart keys, family guards, children’s guards, anti-lost guards, etc., but they all ended in failure.

An industry insider told Tech Planet that developing a successful hardware product requires a long time of research and development and a large amount of capital investment. From design, prototyping, testing to mass production, each stage can face technical difficulties and delays. Internet platforms are accustomed to the fast-iterative software development model, which can be difficult to adapt to the long cycle and high risk of hardware development.

For those Internet platforms that cooperate with hardware manufacturers, although they will not bear the risk of failure to make AI hardware devices, AI applications mounted on hardware devices are highly fungible. If they fail to form user scale and differentiation, it will be difficult to gain a foothold in the current wave of "AI + hardware".

Wang Jiping, vice president of IDC China, believes that the supporting application software of AI end points in the future also needs to be further improved. "We need more applications and more outstanding performance in order to completely subvert this market."

The seemingly beautiful "AI + hardware" still has a long way to go for the big Internet companies.