MANILA – Concepcion Industrial Corp. (CIC) will spend some PHP50 to PHP80 million to adopt Internet of Things (IoT) technologies for its air conditioning products.
In a briefing Wednesday, CIC Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President Raul Joseph Concepcion said the investment would be for the first stage of innovating CIC products.
CIC’s innovation involves ideation, design, development, and commercialization of IoT.
Its units Concepcion-Carrier Air Conditioning Company (CCAC) and Cortex Technologies are set to introduce in the market by April the Carrier Smart+Cool System, which is the first air conditioning system that uses the IoT solutions.
Concepcion said CIC would initially try the IoT technology on window-type aircon, the market for which are the first-time buyers of aircon.
With the IoT solutions, one can control and monitor the usage of aircon through smartphones by downloading the mobile application.
The company is confident about bringing in this kind of solutions in the Philippines, as Filipinos are becoming mature in adopting IoT.
However, market penetration of aircon in the country is only at 12 percent, Concepcion said. He added that this means a lot of opportunities for the CCAC to further penetrate the household market.
It was noted that the top concern of Filipinos in buying aircon is its electricity cost, and not really the cost of the aircon unit.
Concepcion said integrating aircon to IoT will help consumers monitor usage of their unit through their gadgets if they are conscious of their electricity cost.
Meanwhile, Concepcion expects the CIC’s double-digit growth to continue for the next three years.
Concepcion sees strong demand both from consumer products as well as from building and industrial sector.
CIC closed 2017 with 12-percent increase on sales amounting to PHP13.9 billion from PHP12.3 billion in 2016. (PNA)