Why Is the Purchase of Smart Door Locks so Small

Such a "wonderful" number is really like a dose of "heart booster" to stimulate the market confidence of the majority of door lock enterprises. At the same time, it also makes many entrepreneurs see a new 100 billion market. As a result, a large number of door lock enterprises have been established and many brands stand in the city.

If it grows at this rate, it is indeed expected to reach the 100 million mark in a few years. There are more than 600 million families in China, and the penetration rate of smart door lock in the home end is only 3%, while that in Europe and the United States is more than 40%, and that in Japan and South Korea is about 70%. However, the vision of the market was severely "beaten in the face" by the reality.

In 2018, the actual shipment of smart door locks nationwide was about 12 million sets, which is far from the predicted figure. What about 2019? The author learned from people in the industry that the shipment volume in the first half of 2019 was about 6 million units, which decreased slightly compared with last year. It is expected that the annual shipment volume will also remain at the level of 2018, about 12-13 million units.

It is reasonable to say that the application of intelligent products has been gradually accepted by consumers, and the "body" and "money" in the "skill key money" have been gradually far away from our belongings, so it should be acceptable to use intelligent door locks without carrying keys.

However, the purchase of smart door locks is still small. The author believes that there are mainly the following reasons.

Consumers lack confidence in product safety

Door lock is the first defense of family safety. Its function is to ensure safety and prevent illegal intrusion. Therefore, the safety of intelligent door lock is not only its core value, but also the most concerned factor for consumers to buy products. However, the security problems of intelligent door lock are frequently exposed and frequently reported. The State Administration of market supervision and administration, CCTV and consumer associations all revealed the safety problems of smart door locks through the media, and the sampling test results are worrying. There are security vulnerabilities in the mainstream fingerprint, password, IC card and remote unlocking functions.

1. Security problems of fingerprint unlocking function

Fingerprint unlocking of intelligent door lock is divided into optical fingerprint identification and semiconductor fingerprint identification. Optical fingerprint refers to fingerprint acquisition and authentication through the surface texture of light reflection fingerprint, which has certain obstacles to false fingerprint identification. Therefore, the security level of optical fingerprint identification is relatively low.

Semiconductor fingerprint head can identify and authenticate fingerprints through technologies such as temperature, capacitance value and inductance value, which can more effectively prevent the risk of "false fingerprints" such as fingerprint film and fingerprint sleeve, and the security level is relatively high.

However, at present, the fingerprint identification modules used by most intelligent door locks are the overall scheme provided by fingerprint module manufacturers, including the encryption verification mechanism for fingerprint reading, storage and identification. Whether the key strength in this encryption mechanism can resist attack is unknown. Especially for networked locks, when cloud verification is required, the transmission encryption of fingerprint verification instructions is particularly important. Whether it can prevent network attacks and information leakage is an important security issue to be considered.

2. Security problems of IC card unlocking function

The security problem of IC card unlocking is more prominent. According to the test results of the Consumer Association, more than 85% of the samples are unqualified. According to the author, at present, more than 95% of the unlocking IC cards used in smart door locks are M1 cards. The card algorithm was cracked as early as 2009, and there is a M1 card cracking program on a treasure.

No matter whether the smart door lock manufacturer adds a key to the M1 card or not, the key can be read out and copied through the cracking program. Once the key is read out, the key can be cracked exhaustively, which will lead to the complete breach of the key of the intelligent door lock enterprise, resulting in a huge security risk of the sold products. Therefore, the security risk of IC card unlocking comes from M1 card.

In addition, some smart door locks can be unlocked by binding bus cards, bank cards and ID cards. The security risk of this function is greater, because this unlocking method does not even have a card verification key. It is only authenticated and unlocked through the chip uid number or serial number, without any security protection, which is a great risk.

3. Remote unlock

Remote unlocking is to control the door lock through the mobile phone app to achieve the purpose of authentication unlocking. At present, there are Bluetooth, ZigBee, WiFi, Nb, Lora and other connection methods, but no matter which way, it needs to connect and interact with the intelligent door lock control cloud platform, so there are network attacks and command interception in the process of information transmission. Whether the instruction transmission has encryption protection and whether the cloud platform has anti attack capability are related to the overall security of the product.

"Infighting" intensifies and it is difficult to form a brand effect

At present, there are more than 2000 domestic intelligent door lock enterprises and about 3000 brands. Most of them belong to the scale of "small workshops" and impact the market at low prices, making the original healthy market "scattered". Some door lock enterprises have no choice but to reduce prices and participate in the price fight. How is the current smart door lock market like the mobile phone market a few years ago? Low price door locks are everywhere, and when will the price fight end.

Intelligent door lock is a product integrating traditional hardware and intelligent control. It requires not only familiarity with traditional hardware, but also research and development of product design, electronic control, information security and network transmission. More importantly, it is necessary to establish production line, sales channel and after-sales service system, which requires huge capital investment for enterprises.

Low profit margin product sales lead many enterprises to reduce investment in product design, R & D and iteration, and tilt limited funds to sales (especially door lock enterprises focusing on offline sales). Is this strategy right or wrong? The author believes that under such market competition, the strategic adjustment of enterprises is also helpless. After all, the survival of enterprises is the first.

When I communicate with people in the industry, I often hear enterprises complain about the impact of low-cost products on the market, but I am very helpless. I also hope that the market can eliminate some "three noes" enterprises. However, there will be low-cost competition at any time, and it is difficult to achieve the purpose of survival of the fittest only through market "reshuffle".

Product homogeneity, lack of "bright" products

The core of intelligent door lock is security, taking into account the greatest attribute of convenience and intelligence. The current intelligent door locks are innovated in the unlocking mode, so they are seriously homogeneous, easy to imitate and easy to produce. However, in view of the investment in R & D costs, almost all manufacturers follow the superposition of security functions, so it is difficult to produce "hot" products that make consumers excited and have a strong desire to buy.

The homogenization of product design is serious, and the product has not really entered the hearts of consumers

User habits have not been really developed. At present, most domestic users are still used to using key lock. In particular, the middle-aged and elderly people have deep traditional ideas. First, they lack interest in new things, and second, they lack consumption motivation, which makes people feel that it is not necessary to spend "wronged money".

IResearch has released relevant data. Nearly 65% of respondents said that when it is necessary to replace the anti-theft door or lock, they will consider the smart door lock, but they will not change the lock simply because of changing the lock. At the same time, the frequent security problems of intelligent door lock are also an important reason why users can't go up.

In view of the above reasons, the author puts forward some ideas for readers:

1. Improve product quality

Quality is the "King" of products. Involving product safety, stability and durability. In terms of safety, the overall safety of the product shall be improved under the existing technical conditions. The most important thing is that the IC card should be replaced with CPU card. The fingerprint verification, remote transmission and password verification should be added with the key for encryption verification and secure transmission, so as to improve the overall anti attack ability of the product.

2. Innovative product performance

Smart door locks must be Internet of things products in the future. Research should be carried out from the perspective of Internet of things smart home products in the next 2-3 years to innovate the new functional value of smart door locks in addition to unlocking. In this way, inevitable technical barriers are formed to achieve the purpose of core competitiveness.

3. Improve reputation and establish brand effect

The negative report of smart door lock has dragged down consumers' purchase confidence. The smart door lock industry needs several "leading brothers" to carry the banner, stabilize the market and revitalize the reputation of industry products. At the same time, verify the product quality through self inspection and external inspection, and establish a list of industry brands.

4. Scene ecology

Intelligent door locks tend to be ecological. In the field of smart home, the era of "single product is the king" has ended. Especially under 5g, smart home products that cannot be integrated into ecology are not good products. Therefore, it is obvious that the intelligent door lock also needs to be ecologically linked with the whole intelligent system in order to have more tenacious vitality.

For example, integrated into the smart community application system, the "smooth opening" of community access control, unit access control and home door lock can be realized through one key or one card of mobile phone. At the same time, the application in the field of urban public services can be opened horizontally. Taking public transport tools with smart door lock card (physical card or mobile phone card) is no longer a dream.

Once the ecological scenario is formed, the directional selection of intelligent door lock products will open the competitive gap with similar products.