Two people sit in a display 'smart home' in Chongqing on January 22. Photo: CFP

All of a sudden, routers have become trendy. Chinese leading Internet companies are now trying to develop smart Wi-Fi router, which is expected to be the hub of the coming era of smart home appliances.

Smart Wi-Fi routers could prove to be a promising market. They are expected to recognize, monitor and control a collection of smart devices throughout the house, from gaming consoles to smart TVs, said Wang Jun, an analyst with Beijing-based market research firm Analysys International.

However, some experts have also questioned whether they will live up to expectations.

A report issued by Guangdong-based Internet news portal qianjia.com revealed that in 2013, the smart appliance market in China was worth 20.5 billion yuan ($3.28 billion). The figure is forecast to reach 139.6 billion yuan in 2018, and estimated to account for 32 percent of global trade.

It seems that leading Internet companies are predicting massive opportunities in this market.

In one act of positioning, US Internet company Google acquired US-based home automation company Nest Labs for $3.2 billion in January. Domestic peers are trying to enter this arena by actively carving out territories for smart Wi-Fi routers.

Qihoo 360 Technology announced Tuesday that it plans to put 10,000 units of its 360 Router on sale on May 20.

Xiaomi also officially rolled out similar products in April.

A superior in-house router should be a private data storage center and ultimately, it should be the backbone of a smart home, Tang Mu, product manager of Xiaomi's router project, told the Global Times Tuesday.

Equipped with operating systems, the innovative gadget is more like a computer, allowing owners to limit the number of Internet users, close or open access to the Internet, store and share data, and download videos via various applications on PCs or smartphones, even if they are not at home.

Tech enthusiasts are eager to compare the options.

Last November, 500 Xiaomi smart routers were released to beta testers. After a week, the company said it was surprised to have received 500,000 pre-orders.

HiWifi, an Internet company and smart router maker in Beijing, launched 1,000 of its J1S model for testing in December, which were sold out less than a minute on its official website.

But analysts said that consumers should not have overly high expectations of the smart Wi-Fi routers currently sold on the market. The smart Wi-Fi router segment is still young and immature, said Cao Yujie, director at CCW Research.

"Most of them only enable users to monitor Internet usage, quicken downloads and store data in the cloud, but that feature of recognizing all smart appliances is still a dream," Wang told the Global Times.

He noted that deep cooperation between Internet companies and home appliances makers is needed for the establishment of a unified standard so as to help connect smart routers with all kinds of smart appliances.

HiWifi has talked with many domestic home appliances makers, but no deals have been reached yet, as big home appliances makers such as Haier prefer to develop their own standard instead of adopting HiWifi's, Ding Yi, co-founder of HiWifi, told the Global Times Tuesday.

Tang said Xiaomi is in discussion with some mainstream smart home appliance makers.

Even though some small home appliances makers may be willing to share the opportunities in the smart home market with Internet companies, Wang Jun said he was concerned that both kinds of company would need a very long time to promote smart home appliances.

HiWifi J1S

Beijing-based Internet company HiWifi, founded in March 2013, has recently become a rising star in the router industry, because its first smart Wi-Fi router, dubbed "J1," enables users in the Chinese mainland to visit websites like Youtube, Facebook or Twitter with a self-developed app "Outbound Travel Accelerator."

Although this function was removed last August, it put the company under the spotlight. The J1S was the latest one in the HiWifi family.

Thanks to its Linux-based operating system, the J1S can run homegrown applications which, for instance, can help block video advertisements and manage Internet usage. But some users complained on the website of domestic major online retailer jd.com that the app installation slows down the device's operation.

With a non-removable bilateral antenna and 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi technology, the device can transmit signals up to 200 meters, reaching the maximum speed of 300 megabits per second.  While the J1S does not have a built-in memory chip like the J1 does, a SD card can be used in it, which can help expand memory.

Ding Yi, co-founder of HiWifi, said that they have sold 1 million routers, expecting sales in 2014 to reach 3 million.

360 Router

If you are concerned about Internet security, a Beijing-based anti-virus software provider, Qihoo 360 Technology, believes it has the answer with its fairly cheap 360 Router, officially launched Tuesday.

The device is embedded with a security system, which is often updated to guard against Web hackers and Wi-Fi squatters. The company claims that its 360 Router is the first one that can fix "Heart Bleed" which is an Internet loophole that can leak users' personal sensitive information.

In terms of smart functions, most of its features are similar to those that HiWifi and Xiaomi products can provide. For example, users are able to set up the router more easily than non-smart ones. Its maximum speed can reach 1,167 megabits per second. But it does not have a built-in hard drive to store large amounts of data.

Xiaomi Miwifi

Xiaomi Technology officially launched its premium smart Wi-Fi router in late April.

The real beauty of the Xiaomi router is its smart home solution via an app for all Xiaomi devices. But for many other smart home appliances, this feature exists only in name.

The device supports DLNA (digital living network alliance), allowing users to play media content in its built-in 1-terabyte hard drive - being able to hold 1,000 high definition films - on Xiaomi smartphones or TVs. And thanks to the 802.11ac Wi-Fi technology, the Xiaomi router can reach the maximum speed of 1,167 megabits per second, three times faster than non-smart options.

One major downside of the router is the noises created by a fan, which is installed inside the gadget to cool the processor.