If it can be argued that in 2011 the rural market played a crucial role in the development of air conditioner industry, judging from the present growth trend, in the 2012 refrigeration year the rural market will play an even more important role. In particular, in the popularization of variable frequency air conditioners, rural market will become the major growth spot for market expansion of variable frequency air conditioner; the variable frequency air conditioner is expected to become the mainstream product in the rural market.

Judging from the sales process in the 2011 refrigeration year, the air conditioner industry has overcome a series of difficulties including weakening in the strength of policy support,relative downturn in overall market during June and July, and the increase in the raw material prices and labor costs, and introduced a huge range of new air conditioner products catering to consumer needs; in particular, variable frequency air conditioner further recorded considerable growth; by taking advantage of a series of auxiliary sales measures, enterprises one after another intensified efforts in developing third and fourth tier cities and rural markets, so as to provide powerful guarantee to the increase in overall sales scale of air conditioner.

The fast growth in the rural market has become the consensus of the industry; meanwhile the importance of rural market has attracted increasing industry concern. In fact, air conditioner giants such as GREE and MIDEA are not alone in intensifying efforts to promote variable frequency air conditioners in the rural market, some household electrical appliance manufacturers with solid foundation in the rural area also have incorporated variable frequency air conditioners into their strategy of market promotion. According to industry insiders, future competition in the third and fourth tier cities will become even more intensified, variable frequency air conditioners will become mainstream product in the competition.