When it comes to Anker Innovations, the first thing that comes to people's minds may be power banks. However, it is such a smart hardware equipment manufacturer famous for power banks, but recently there has been news of entering the field of embodied robots, which has attracted attention in the industry.
In 2011, Anker Innovations entered the market with the "Anker" brand and sold charging products through cross-border e-commerce platforms such as Amazon.
Anker is often considered by Chinese people to be a power bank company, but it is actually a company that does sub-categories, and the revenue of power bank accounts for less than 10% of their revenue. In 2022, Anker's revenue will exceed $2 billion, and many sub-categories have achieved the world's first echelon in the three fields of charging and energy storage, audio-visual equipment, and smart home.
In the field of consumer electronics, small products such as power banks are often seen as a red ocean market, but Anker Innovations stands out in this field with its excellent R&D and marketing strategies. Since 2014, Anker, its smart charging brand, has won the title of BestSeller in the mobile power supply category of Amazon in North America, Japan, Europe and other markets, and has been selected as one of the top 50 global brands in China by BrandZ for many times.
Anker Innovations' popularity is also due in part to former U.S. President Donald Trump. In a live conversation with Musk in August this year, an Anker power bank was placed under Trump's mobile phone, and this detail was quickly captured and spread by netizens, making Anker unexpectedly "out of the circle" and attracting a lot of attention.
However, Anker's path to innovation doesn't stop at power banks. In recent years, the company has continuously launched new products and gradually emerged in the field of intelligent innovative products. Yang Meng, founder and CEO of Anker Innovations, has publicly stated that general-purpose robots will definitely be a super category in the future, whether they are humanoid or not, there is no doubt about it.
According to people familiar with the matter, Anker Innovations has set up an embodied robot team, which is led by Liu Fang, the former head of mass production of Xiaomi Smart Home. As an early employee of Xiaomi, Liu Fang was in charge of the life yellow pages business at MIUI, and later became the head of autonomous driving product technology and mass production of Xiaomi Auto, and has rich experience in autonomous driving and intelligent product research and development. Liu Fang reports directly to Zhu Fanghao, vice president of Anker Innovations and president of Zhixin Technology.
The establishment of this team marks Anker Innovations' official entry into the embodied robot track. In addition, Anker is also actively recruiting ontology engineers, Unity engineers, embodied intelligence algorithm engineers, robot product managers and other related positions in the direction of robotics to reserve talents for the robotics business.
In fact, Anker Innovations is not without foundation in the field of robotics. As early as 2016, Anker Innovations released the first EUFY series of sweeping robots overseas, and achieved good sales results. According to IDC data in the second quarter of this year, Anker Innovations' shipments of sweeping robots have reached the seventh place in the world, and overseas markets are its main markets. This achievement also validates Anker Innovations' strength in the field of smart cleaning home appliances, and also lays a solid foundation for the company to enter the field of embodied robots.
With the continuous development and application of artificial intelligence technology, embodied robots have become a popular direction in the field of intelligent hardware. Although Anker Innovations has extensive experience and strength in the field of intelligent hardware, it still faces many challenges in entering the field of embodied robots.
First of all, embodied robot technology is complex, involving perception, decision-making, execution and other aspects, requiring strong R&D capabilities and technology accumulation. Secondly, the market competition is fierce, and technology giants such as Xiaomi and Huawei are also actively deploying in the field of smart home and robots.
However, there are challenges and opportunities. As technology advances and costs decrease, embodied robots are expected to achieve wider adoption in the coming years. With its experience and strength in the field of intelligent hardware, Anker Innovations is expected to make new breakthroughs and achievements in the field of embodied robots. At the same time, the wide application of embodied robots will also bring new growth points and market opportunities for Anker Innovation.
From power banks to embodied robots, Anker Innovation's cross-border journey is full of challenges and opportunities. However, just as its strength and potential in the field of power bank have been demonstrated, in the field of embodied robots, we might as well look forward to what kind of style and strength Anker Innovations will show.