Can Xiaomi NAS disrupt the dominance of Ugreen, Huawei, and ZSpace in the light NAS market?
Xiaomi NAS is coming. According to Chen Bo, the general manager of Xiaomi's ecological chain, revealed during a live broadcast that Xiaomi NAS will undergo mass - production testing in early October and be released before New Year's Day. On July 8, the digital blogger Smart Pikachu reported that Xiaomi NAS is expected to be released alongside the Xiaomi 16 Ultra.
Recently, however, Xiaomi products, including Xiaomi routers, have been controversial. While raising doubts about Xiaomi's software - hardware integration capabilities, it also puts pressure on Xiaomi NAS.
Previously, Xiaomi routers had NAS features but were criticized for their software - hardware integration capabilities. How will the upcoming Xiaomi NAS be different? What capabilities does Xiaomi need to strengthen in the NAS field?
1 Xiaomi NAS: Targeting the Consumer - grade and Light - enterprise Markets
According to the statistics and forecasts of QYR (Hengzhou Bozhi), the market size of China's household NAS in 2023 was 712 million yuan, and it is expected to reach 9.619 billion yuan by 2030. Not only household NAS, but with the development of cloud computing and big data, the demand for NAS will increase significantly.
As early as October 2024, Chen Bo, the general manager of Xiaomi's ecological chain, revealed that the goal of Xiaomi NAS is to create the most suitable home storage product for Mi Home users.
Currently, there are two main types of NAS solutions. The first type is finished equipment. Enterprises provide complete storage solutions. Users only need to connect the power supply, access the Internet, install the hard drive according to the system prompts, and install the application on devices such as mobile phones and tablets to use it. It has a lower learning cost and better stability but is relatively expensive.
The second type is suitable for users with strong hands - on abilities. They can buy relevant hardware to form a NAS, and then based on the sharing functions of systems such as Windows and Linux or install the corresponding system, they can complete the sharing of hard - drive content. This type of solution is not suitable for novice users and has some deficiencies in experience.
According to Chen Bo, the general manager of Xiaomi's ecological chain, "The overall planning of Xiaomi's first NAS product will not be overly geeky. It is mainly to popularize the NAS product category to consumers." It seems that the positioning of Xiaomi's first NAS product has been determined. Xiaomi NAS is undoubtedly the first type of solution, targeting the consumer - grade and light - enterprise markets.
In February this year, Xiaomi's NAS survey exposed the possible configurations of Xiaomi NAS.
Judging from Xiaomi's questionnaire, Xiaomi NAS products may be benchmarked against Huawei's home storage. In the pictures of the questionnaire, Xiaomi NAS is a direct mirror image of Huawei NAS. Although the final product will definitely be different, Xiaomi, like Huawei, should regard NAS as the future smart home hub. On December 16, 2024, Xiaomi released the official Home Assistant Mi Home integration project on GitHub, open - sourced its smart home platform, and transferred the control of the Mi Home ecosystem to users.
The usage scenarios of NAS are very clear. In essence, it is still for users whose local device storage space is insufficient and need to store videos, pictures, documents and other content in a private "external space", while also taking into account real - time reading and storage.
But in reality, the device composition is relatively complex. Relying solely on traditional NAS applications cannot achieve the transfer and synchronization of stored data across devices. However, both Huawei and Xiaomi can use their advantages in cloud computing, communication, smart ecosystem and other aspects to better integrate into users' multi - device ecosystems. Expansion is only part of it. More importantly, multi - terminal and cross - terminal reading can be achieved without an additional app.
Therefore, Xiaomi does not need to imitate brands such as Synology, Ugreen, and ZSpace. By meeting the needs of users of Xiaomi mobile phones, tablets, TVs, and PCs, improving the interconnection ecosystem, and reducing costs and prices, it can win the recognition of Mi fans.
Not only in the Xiaomi ecosystem, on October 29, 2024, at the press conference of the Xiaomi 15 series and Xiaomi HyperOS 2, Jin Fan, the vice - president of Xiaomi, announced that Xiaomi HyperConnect fully supports the Apple ecosystem. Judging from Xiaomi's continuous optimization of its support for Apple in another important automotive product, Xiaomi has already accumulated corresponding technical experience in multi - terminal and cross - terminal reading.
Chen Bo, the general manager of Xiaomi's ecological chain, once revealed the three key functions of Xiaomi NAS: First, connect devices such as mobile phones, PCs, TVs, and tablets to achieve mobile - phone expansion and AI photo albums; Second, create a home video center that can generate a private movie poster wall, allowing users to order movies in the NAS at will; Third, provide users with basic storage needs with rich network - disk management and resource - downloading capabilities.
With the interconnection ability of cross - terminal collaboration, Xiaomi NAS will at least be the most ideal large - capacity storage solution for "Xiaomi product ecosystem" users, increasing users' stickiness to Xiaomi products.
Compared with Huawei, which completely positions NAS as the smart home hub, Xiaomi offers the option of M2 dual - disk bays. On the other hand, Huawei's NAS is priced at 2,399 yuan and above. Judging from the questionnaire, the price of Xiaomi NAS may be between 999 yuan and 1,999 yuan. Compared with the current market where the price starts at least two or three thousand yuan, Xiaomi may drop a bombshell in the NAS market in terms of price and capture the consumption psychology of "light NAS" users.
At the same time, the issue of not supporting Docker has also made Xiaomi NAS controversial. As Xiaomi's benchmark, Huawei, which also entered the NAS field from the mobile - phone industry, also does not support Docker in its products, focusing on Huawei's ecological interconnection and cloud storage. However, Xiaomi's questionnaire was quickly taken off the shelves. It is unknown whether Xiaomi will consider consumers' feelings and support Docker in its products.
2 Seamless Experience and AI May Be the Way for Xiaomi NAS to Break Through
Ugreen is often regarded as the "Xiaomi in the NAS field". It enters the incremental market ignored by traditional manufacturers, that is, novice users, through extreme ease of use and price disruption. Although it is only an entry - level NAS, the 618 data released by Ugreen shows that Ugreen NAS private cloud won the double championships of category sales volume and sales amount on the three platforms of JD.com, Douyin, and Tmall, accounting for 6 of the top 10 single - product sales amounts on JD.com and ranking in the top two of single - product sales amounts on Tmall.
The success of Ugreen does not lie in technological leadership, but in the precise grasp of the truth that "90% of users only need 10% of NAS functions" and the encapsulation of complex functions into a "seamless experience".
Generally speaking, geek users regard NAS as a toy with rich functions and use it to do many things, while ordinary users only want a cloud storage device that can back up mobile - phone files seamlessly and is affordable, used to store daily - taken photos and files received at work.
Xiaomi will probably precisely target this large incremental market with cost - effectiveness. It uses its ecosystem to make up for the technological gap between it and traditional NAS leaders such as Synology, and lowers the NAS threshold to a level that ordinary users can use. But in the face of Ugreen, which has already laid out in the NAS field, Xiaomi needs to prove that its "seamless" experience can cover a wide range of core scenarios and consider whether to stratify the future product line to meet different needs.
On the other hand, the competition dimension of NAS has jumped from basic storage, synchronization, and interconnection to intelligent, automated, and personalized services driven by AI.
According to the news from the financial report website, on January 8, Ugreen launched the world's first AI NAS with a built - in large - language model at the 2025 CES. Its product, the iDX6011, is equipped with the new - generation Intel Core Ultra 5 processor 125H, with a powerful configuration of 14 cores and 18 threads, and can reach a maximum overclocking frequency of 4.50 GHz.
In terms of technology, Ugreen embraces Intel and increases its competition in AI. As early as 2023, Ugreen became the first NAS private - cloud storage brand in the Chinese mainland to sign a cooperation project memorandum with Intel. Intel provides powerful AI computing power support for Ugreen's AI NAS.
At the same time, Ugreen launched the AI Plugins application, comprehensively optimizing and upgrading the operation mode and experience of AI on Ugreen NAS. Compared with traditional NAS, AI Plugins introduces IPEX - LLM technology, allowing Intel's GPU to join the computing process, realizing more efficient picture/document recognition management, intelligent search, content - generation assistance, etc.
In terms of interconnection and AI functions, they are also the key points of competition among current NAS manufacturers. Ugreen mainly targets light NAS users, while in the SOHO (Small Office/Home Office) and SMB (Small and Medium - sized Business) NAS markets, QNAP and Synology form a "duopoly" pattern.
QNAP is currently the most radical manufacturer in the in - depth native integration of Chinese LLM in NAS. Zheng Qinzong, the product manager of QNAP, once said: "The key to AI development has shifted from model algorithms to a comprehensive test of enterprise infrastructure. When enterprises introduce LLM, generative AI, or virtualized applications, what they really need is an edge computing platform that can properly manage a large amount of data, strengthen information security, and provide stable performance."
According to the previous news from Lan Dian Wang, on February 18, Synology released the Office Suite API, opening up the connection channel between Synology's private - cloud office suite and third - party systems through the API interface. Its "API uses AI - driven tools to enable enterprises to automate work processes, optimize operations, and improve productivity."
Although the technological barriers and service systems of enterprise - level storage are still moats, Synology/QNAP builds a defense line through high - end products, subscription models, and in - depth exploration of vertical scenarios. But whether it is Synology/QNAP or other manufacturers, they are all committed to transforming AI capabilities into values that users can perceive.
The key for Xiaomi to continuously attract users is whether it can quickly respond and launch competitive AI functions to avoid falling behind in the intelligent wave. Xiaomi needs to use AI to make data flow intelligently within the ecosystem, such as automatic archiving based on user habits and in - depth linkage analysis of data with other Mi Home devices, find a delicate balance between "ease of use" and "AI intelligence", and transform the ecological advantage into unique user value.
3 Conclusion
Xiaomi NAS may enter the market strongly with its affordable price and ecological interconnection advantages, targeting the huge "light NAS" consumer group and is expected to lower the market price threshold. However, while facing the price and AI innovation competition from peers such as Ugreen, Xiaomi needs to overcome consumers' doubts about its software - hardware integration. On the other hand, the leading position of giants such as Synology and QNAP in technological depth and AI application is still stable and cannot be shaken by Xiaomi.
The key for Xiaomi to stir up the NAS market and win the future is whether it can break through on the popularization path with the "seamless experience" and cost - effectiveness strategy and quickly strengthen key capabilities such as AI. Of course, we still have to wait for Xiaomi NAS to be launched on the market to know how it will be in the end.