MIIT Unveils Three-Year Action Plan for Smart Hardware, Highlighting Medical and Health Devices

According to the website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the MIIT and the National Development and Reform Commission recently issued the Special Action Plan for Innovative Development of the Smart Hardware Industry (2016–2018). The Plan states that by 2018, Chinese smart hardware products will account for more than 30% of the global market share, the industry scale will exceed RMB 500 billion, and overseas patents will constitute more than 10% of the total.

The “Action Plan” specifically notes that its issuance, following the previously released “Three-Year Implementation Plan for ‘Internet Plus’ Artificial Intelligence,” signals that the convergence of Internet Plus, artificial intelligence, and smart hardware is indeed poised to become a major trend.

VCBeat (WeChat: vcbeat) has compiled the key insights as follows:

1. Background: Smart hardware will be an amalgamation of next-generation information technologies, presenting both challenges and opportunities

Smart hardware refers to emerging internet-enabled terminal products that possess capabilities for data acquisition, processing, and connectivity, and can deliver functions such as intelligent sensing, human-computer interaction, and big data services. It serves as a crucial carrier for the integration of “Internet Plus” and artificial intelligence. Following the intelligent transformation of terminal products like smartphones and televisions, next-generation information technologies are accelerating their integration with sectors such as personal wearables, transportation, healthcare, and manufacturing. This convergence is driving the robust growth of the smart hardware industry, fostering business model innovation and enhancing operational efficiency.

Currently, China’s intelligent hardware industry faces both opportunities and challenges. On the one hand, as a major producer of electronic information products and home to the world’s largest internet user base, China boasts vast market potential for intelligent hardware. On the other hand, issues and risks such as insufficient supply of key technologies and high-end products, an inadequate innovation support system, weak interaction between production and application, and fragmented ecosystems cannot be overlooked. This special action plan aims to promote innovative development in the intelligent hardware industry, enhance the effective supply of high-end generic technologies and products, meet the diverse needs of social production and daily life for intelligent hardware, and cultivate new drivers of growth for the information technology industry.

2. The goal is to capture over 30% of the global market share by 2018, with an industry scale exceeding RMB 500 billion.

By 2018, China’s global market share of smart hardware exceeded 30%, with the industry scale surpassing RMB 500 billion. Significant breakthroughs were achieved in key technological areas, including low-power lightweight system design, low-power wide-area intelligent Internet of Things (IoT), virtual reality, intelligent human-computer interaction, and high-performance motion and posture control, fostering a group of leading listed enterprises in the industry. China’s participation, contribution, and influence within mainstream international ecosystems increased markedly, with overseas patents accounting for more than 10%. Three major support platforms were established for standard development, product and application testing, and industrial supply capacity monitoring, bringing China’s smart hardware standardization and public service capabilities to an internationally advanced level. Several high-level innovation platforms featuring advanced technology, distinct characteristics, and complementary advantages were deployed, significantly enhancing support for entrepreneurship and innovation. Industrial-grade smart hardware products, such as smart industrial sensors, smart PLCs, and smart unmanned systems, achieved large-scale demonstration applications, driving productivity improvements of over 20%. A number of replicable and scalable industry application solutions were developed, demonstrating tangible benefits in facilitating public access and improving public welfare.

3. Enhance Supply Capacity in Five Major Areas

① Smart Wearable Devices. Support enterprises in addressing consumer demands for sports, entertainment, and social interaction by accelerating the R&D and industrialization of wearable devices such as smartwatches, smart bands, smart clothing, and virtual reality equipment. Enhance product functionality, performance, and industrial design standards, driving products toward refined craftsmanship, rich features, accurate data, reliable performance, user-friendly operation, and energy efficiency. Strengthen cross-platform application development and supporting infrastructure, facilitate data exchange and interactive control among different products, and improve capabilities in big data collection, analysis, processing, and services.

② Intelligent In-Vehicle Devices. Support enterprises in strengthening cross-sector collaboration to develop intelligent in-vehicle radar, smart rearview mirrors, intelligent dashcams, and smart in-vehicle navigation systems, addressing the travel needs of drivers and passengers while enhancing product safety, convenience, and practicality. Promote the integrated application of next-generation information technologies—such as intelligent operating systems, BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), broadband mobile communications, and big data—in in-vehicle devices, thereby enriching connected vehicle information services including driving assistance, vehicle health management, and emergency rescue. Develop automotive-grade testing and certification capabilities for chips, components, and complete equipment, and improve the supporting supply chain system.

③ Intelligent medical and health devices. To meet public demands for health monitoring, remote diagnosis and treatment, and home-based elderly care, we will promote the development and application of intelligent home diagnostic equipment, intelligent health monitoring devices, and intelligent analytical diagnostic systems. We encourage end-device manufacturers to collaborate with medical institutions, focusing on enhancing product quality, performance, and data credibility. Efforts will be made to strengthen the interoperability of interfaces, protocols, and data across different devices and systems, thereby promoting data integration between intelligent hardware, digital medical devices, and related medical and health service platforms.

④ Intelligent service robots. Targeting application scenarios such as households, education, commerce, and public services, we will advance the development of technologies including multimodal human-computer interaction, environmental understanding, autonomous navigation, and intelligent decision-making. We will develop open-source hardware and software platforms and solutions for intelligent service robots, improve standards for communication control, safety, and design platforms—including programming and graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for operation—thereby enhancing the intelligence level of service robots and expanding their product application markets.

⑤ Industrial-grade intelligent hardware devices. To meet the needs of industrial production, develop high-reliability intelligent industrial sensors, intelligent industrial gateways, intelligent PLCs, industrial-grade wearable devices, and unmanned systems, along with related intelligent hardware products and services. Support the industrialization of technical architectures and equipment for new-type industrial communications, industrial security protection, remote maintenance, and industrial cloud computing and services, thereby enhancing capabilities in the development, optimization, comprehensive simulation, and testing and validation of industrial-grade intelligent systems.

4. Strengthen Technological Innovation in the Six Core Key Areas of Intelligent Hardware

They are: 1. Low-power, lightweight underlying hardware and software technologies; 2. Virtual reality/augmented reality technologies; 3. High-performance intelligent sensing technologies; 4. High-precision motion and posture control technologies; 5. Low-power wide-area intelligent Internet of Things (IoT) technologies; 6. Device-cloud integrated collaborative technologies.

5. Promote intelligent upgrades in key sectors, with health and elderly care as well as healthcare being the top priorities

Deeply explore the application demands for smart hardware in fields such as healthy aging, education, healthcare, and industry; strengthen intelligent upgrades in key areas; and promote the integrated application and widespread adoption of smart hardware products.

　1. Health and Elderly Care Sector.Encourage smart hardware enterprises to collaborate with health and elderly care institutions to integrate and manage health data, enabling data integration and application with relevant health and elderly care service platforms. Develop smart hardware application services such as exercise and sleep data collection, real-time monitoring of vital signs, emergency assistance, and real-time location tracking, thereby enhancing the quality and efficiency of health and elderly care services.

2. Education Sector. Support smart hardware enterprises in addressing educational needs by applying smart hardware technologies in areas such as remote education, smart classrooms, virtual classrooms, and online learning, thereby enhancing the level of intelligence in education. In alignment with the evolving forms of smart hardware products, develop corresponding high-quality teaching resource repositories, integrate online and offline educational resources, expand the coverage of high-quality educational resources, and promote educational equity.

　　3. Healthcare Sector.Encourage medical institutions to accelerate the process of informatization, promote the application of intelligent medical health devices in diagnosis, treatment, nursing, rehabilitation and other links, strengthen the construction of medical data cloud platforms, promote remote diagnosis, remote surgery, remote treatment and other models, support the digitalization, customization and remote development of medical resources and services, promote collaborative information services among communities, domestic service providers, medical care institutions and elderly care institutions, and improve the level of medical security services.

4. Industrial Sector. Encourage industrial enterprises to collaborate with smart hardware manufacturers to carry out integration and adaptation of industrial-grade smart hardware systems, accelerate the intelligent transformation in key areas, enhance capabilities in agile manufacturing and flexible manufacturing, and foster emerging services such as industrial remote maintenance and industrial big data analytics based on smart hardware.

Furthermore, the Action Plan also mentions specific measures such as strengthening policy coordination, improving the standard testing system, developing entrepreneurship and innovation platforms, and building an industrial ecosystem.

It can be said that the state is driving a comprehensive upgrade of the smart hardware sector from the top down, elevating smart hardware to the level of a foundational element in the national information technology ecosystem. This presents significant opportunities for entrepreneurship in healthcare and many other fields.