Honor and Xiaomi Step Up Efforts, the Battle in the Whole-Home Intelligence Market Intensifies: Are Home Appliance Giants the Ultimate Decision-Makers?
More players are pouring into the smart home market.
Recently, Honor officially announced that its products are among the first batch to be compatible with Home Assistant and support the Matter protocol, officially entering the smart home market. According to the latest financial report released by Xiaomi, the number of IoT devices connected to Xiaomi's AIoT platform has exceeded 1 billion for the first time in history, representing a year-on-year increase of over 20%.
(Image source: Honor)
On one hand, smartphone manufacturers are re-entering the smart home market with AI and operating systems. On the other hand, home appliance giants such as Midea, Haier, and Gree are also shifting their strategic focus to "whole-home intelligence." A game for control of the home smart ecosystem is quietly unfolding.
Smartphone Manufacturers Enter the Whole-Home Intelligence Market: Xiaomi, Huawei, Apple, and Honor Adopt Different Strategies
Against the backdrop of the explosion of large AI models, the strategies of smartphone manufacturers in the smart home market have undergone fundamental changes. Among the smartphone manufacturers, Xiaomi, Huawei, Honor, and Apple have taken completely different paths.
1. Xiaomi: A Major Player in the Home Appliance Ecosystem Evolving from a Smartphone Manufacturer
In fact, Xiaomi can no longer be simply called a "smartphone manufacturer." It is a comprehensive consumer electronics brand with a complete product matrix of home appliances and IoT products.
In terms of product lines, Xiaomi offers smartphones, routers, smart speakers, TVs, and extends to air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, rice cookers, vacuum cleaners, air purifiers, lighting fixtures, sockets, and curtain motors. It basically has corresponding products or ecosystem brands for all the electrical appliances a family can think of.
(Image source: Xiaomi)
Behind this is the Mi Home App and the AIoT platform. According to Xiaomi's 2024 annual report, as of the end of 2024, the number of connected IoT devices (excluding smartphones, tablets, and computers) on Xiaomi's AIoT platform reached approximately 904.6 million. By the third quarter of 2025, this number had exceeded 1 billion, and over 100 million users had at least five or more connected devices.
Xiaomi has built its smart home ecosystem through high hardware sales volume, controlling everything from sensors to home appliances, from entry points to central controls. Its advantage is easy to understand. If users buy all Xiaomi ecosystem products for their homes, they don't have to worry about the "interconnection" problem. The Mi Home App can handle most of the scenario linkage, automation, and voice control. More importantly, Xiaomi's smart hardware products are moderately priced, with a low entry threshold.
2. Huawei: Trying to Treat the Home as a "Super Device" with HarmonyOS
Compared with Xiaomi, Huawei's strategy is more systematic.
Instead of rushing to develop hardware, Huawei first built a unified operating system, HarmonyOS, and paired it with new-generation short-range communication technologies like NearLink as the "foundation" for all home devices. Then, it developed a product matrix for whole-home intelligence. HarmonyOS integrates smartphones, tablets, PCs, in-car systems, smart screens, and other devices into a distributed system. From the central control unit, panels, and gateways of the whole home to lighting, curtains, air conditioning, floor heating, and fresh air systems, and even in cooperation with the system integration of fully decorated houses, it directly turns the house into a huge "HarmonyOS smartphone."
(Image source: Huawei)
In terms of technology, Huawei focuses on "proactive intelligence" and "spatial intelligence," emphasizing that through sensor networks and AI decision-making, the home can be upgraded from "device response" to "spatial understanding." For example, information such as who is at home, which room they are in, what they are doing, and their environmental preferences can be perceived, inferred, and executed by the system. This is actually the transformation that smart homes or whole-home intelligence should undergo after being empowered by AI.
Of course, since entering the smart home market, Huawei has not intended to compete with Apple, Xiaomi, and Honor on the same level. It aims to skip the single-product ecosystem and directly target whole-home intelligence. Huawei wants to create an "operating system for the home," rather than just "a few more interconnected small appliances."
3. Apple: The "Boundary Sense" of the Ecosystem is Becoming Stronger
In terms of user experience, Apple's HomeKit is still one of the best in the smart home market. When paired with iPhones, Apple TVs, HomePods, and Apple Watches, the entire interaction logic is smooth, and the automation settings are relatively intuitive.
However, the problems are also obvious.
In terms of the product matrix, Apple's smart home products still revolve around a few types of devices. The Apple TV serves as the central control unit, the HomePod series serves as the voice entry point, and iPhones and iPads serve as the daily control interfaces, paired with some HomeKit-certified lighting fixtures, sockets, cameras, and door locks. It doesn't produce refrigerators or air conditioners like Xiaomi, nor does it have a "whole-home intelligence" solution like Huawei that "covers the entire house."
(Image source: Apple)
Therefore, Apple only provides an interaction solution and a smart home protocol. The user experience depends on third-party manufacturers that support the protocol. As of 2024, the number of devices compatible with Apple Home is in the thousands. In contrast, Amazon, which also only provides a protocol, had reached the millions level in 2024.
In addition, Apple's solution is almost exclusive to Apple ecosystem users. If you are an iPhone user, you will have a good experience by investing in this system. This is actually the result of Apple's relatively conservative strategy.
4. Honor: Not Competing for Home Appliances or Whole-Home Intelligence, Just Wanting to Create a Smart Home
Honor neither massively deploys its own home appliance products nor develops a heavy system like "whole-home intelligence." Instead, it more thoroughly embraces industry-standard protocols. This time, its compatibility with Home Assistant and Matter actually sends a clear signal.
In terms of the product matrix, Honor's "smart home-related" devices mainly revolve around 3C terminals such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, routers, smart screens, and wearable devices. It doesn't focus on developing its own refrigerators, washing machines, and air conditioners. This means that if it wants to increase its presence in the home scenario, it either has to cooperate deeply with traditional home appliance manufacturers.
Honor's integration with Home Assistant and Matter shows that it is more willing to be a "coordinator among various devices." This solution is similar to Apple's, but the difference is that it can focus on its strengths, such as system interconnection, smartphone entry points, AI understanding, and user experience. The expansion of home appliance types can be achieved through the rich ecosystem supported by the protocol. For users, the Honor smartphone can become a more user-friendly control center, rather than an entry point with a strongly bound self-owned ecosystem.
(Image source: Honor)
The advantage of this choice is that it is more open and can accommodate more devices, and it can quickly improve its smart home product matrix. The disadvantage is that these products do not exclusively belong to Honor. Once the cooperation relationship breaks down, the long-term support for the products is questionable.
It is not difficult to see that although smartphone manufacturers have different positions and directions in the smart home market, their core is to reorganize the originally fragmented home devices into an understandable and controllable whole through system entry points, protocol standards, and cross-device collaboration capabilities. This is why the path that was once hindered by ecosystem fragmentation now finally has the technical foundation to move forward, and it gives smartphone manufacturers a reason to return to the smart home market.
The question is, would this have been a huge advantage for smartphone manufacturers a decade ago? Now, traditional home appliance manufacturers are also talking about interconnection, AI, and whole-home intelligence. Do smartphone manufacturers still have a chance of winning?
Home Appliance Giants are the Ultimate "Decision-Makers" in Whole-Home Intelligence
If in the past few years, the smart home market was mainly dominated by traditional home appliance giants such as Midea, Haier, and Gree, then the focus of this competition has now shifted from "single-product intelligence" to "system collaboration," which has given smartphone manufacturers a new opportunity to enter the market.
However, traditional home appliance giants have also regarded whole-home intelligence as a long-term corporate strategy. For example, Gree has proposed the new concept of a "zero-carbon healthy home," trying to combine photovoltaic, energy storage, and home appliances to enter the whole-home intelligence market from the perspective of energy management.
Haier has elevated the battlefield from "selling single products" to "selling scenarios." In the Sanwingbird stores, users no longer buy an isolated refrigerator but a smart kitchen solution that integrates cabinets, home appliances, and lighting. This "whole-home customization" ability is difficult for smartphone manufacturers, which mainly rely on online channels, to achieve.
(Image source: Midea)
Similarly, the AI agent demonstrated by Midea during its recent technology month event also reveals its ambition to "eliminate the need for apps." Midea is trying to enable home appliances to have sensing capabilities. For example, air conditioners can automatically turn off when no one is present, and range hoods can automatically adjust according to the concentration of cooking fumes, thereby reducing the reliance on smartphone control.
More importantly, the absolute advantage of traditional home appliance manufacturers lies in hardware barriers and scenario understanding. Haier knows how to make refrigerators more effective in preserving food, and Gree knows how to make air conditioners more energy-efficient. These core hardware experiences are the foundation of intelligence, which can ensure the performance and capabilities of individual smart home appliances. For example, if an air conditioner has poor cooling performance, even the smartest algorithm is meaningless.
However, the apps developed by traditional manufacturers often have a poor user experience and operate independently, forming isolated islands. Although they are all promoting whole-home intelligence, the different protocols make it difficult for users to freely choose cross-brand products. The solutions advocated by smartphone manufacturers are less likely to have these problems. Users only need to pay attention to the protocols supported by the products before purchasing.
How Do Professional Smart Home Manufacturers Compete with Giants?
Obviously, smartphone manufacturers and home appliance giants are not the only players in the smart home market. In this field, there are also professional smart home players that have survived the smart hardware war and are still in the market today, represented by ORVIBO and Aqara. In recent years, with the popularity of whole-home intelligence, some new players have also entered the market, such as Dreame.
ORVIBO initially focused on smart panels and control systems and established itself in the market with a solution that allows users to control the whole home with a single screen. However, as home appliance manufacturers shift their focus to whole-home intelligence, ORVIBO has also started to enter the smart home market and launched a "defensive offensive." For example, the integrated central air conditioning system launched recently combines the functions of air conditioning, floor heating, and water heaters into one device. Paired with its own smart control module, it enables the temperature, humidity, and domestic hot water of the home environment to be adjusted through a unified system.
In the past two years, Aqara has mainly adopted a steady strategy. It has not rushed to develop home appliance products but has continued to improve the infrastructure of smart homes. Aqara's advantage lies in its long-term focus on sensors, door locks, smart switches, and lighting systems. These seemingly insignificant small devices are actually the most crucial core components for whole-home intelligence.
Compared with ORVIBO and Aqara, Dreame is the most aggressive among the new players in the smart home market.
At its latest major product launch, Dreame launched more than 30 new products, covering multiple categories such as vacuum cleaners, floor washers, washer-dryer combos, air conditioners, refrigerators, steam ovens, dishwashers, water purification devices, and TVs.
For example, their X-Wind air conditioner uses a robotic arm structure to adjust the air direction, the refrigerator is equipped with an instant bubble water system, the washer-dryer combo emphasizes steam care and circulating spray technology, and the kitchen products are further enhanced in terms of capacity, energy efficiency, and cooking algorithms. It is not difficult to see that Dreame hopes to build a home experience that integrates the living room and the kitchen, from air to water, through product coverage and cross-category collaboration.
With the entry of these players, the competition in the smart home market has become more intense. Smartphone manufacturers are good at entry-point interaction and system collaboration, traditional home appliance manufacturers have deep accumulation in hardware engineering, established smart home manufacturers like ORVIBO and Aqara maintain their competitiveness through channels and scenario understanding, and Dreame is expanding its influence through cross-category product launches.
It can be seen that the future smart home market may be in a pattern where multiple forces coexist for a long time. Smartphone manufacturers offer more freedom in choosing smart home products, but the quality of individual products cannot be guaranteed. Home appliance manufacturers have better-performing and higher-quality individual products and can also offer a complete set of whole-home intelligence solutions for consumers to choose from, but the freedom of product selection is lower. Different players have their own advantages, which means that the smart home market will not be monopolized by a single player and will continue to progress in the long term.
Conclusion
The future competition in the smart home market is not about "whether smartphone manufacturers can replace home appliance manufacturers." The answer is no.
Smartphone manufacturers and home appliance manufacturers follow different logics. Home appliance manufacturers continue to focus on improving basic capabilities such as environmental quality, energy efficiency, and safety to ensure long-term reliability. Smartphone manufacturers improve horizontal system capabilities, protocol integration capabilities, and cross-brand collaboration capabilities, so that users don't have to