Xiaomi sets up 'smart home ecosystem' with AI devices

Xiaomi Corp is setting up a "smart home ecosystem" with an upgraded operating system and AI or artificial intelligence-featured devices, covering smartphones, smart TVs and an Echo-like speaker to be available later this month, the company said in Shanghai on Thursday.

In the second quarter, Xiaomi sold 23.1 million smartphones globally, the first time to generate sales over 20 million units in a quarter. Besides smartphones, Xiaomi has sold a total of 60 million smart devices already such as TVs, routers, air purifiers and monitors, all of which feature web-linked functions.

The huge volume of smart device sales offers Xiaomi extra advantages on smart home strategy, analysts said.

“AI is the biggest catalyst for technology development now. Xiaomi has lots of opportunities as one of the smart device vendors,”  Wang Chuan, Xiaomi’s co-founder, said in Shanghai. 

Besides Xiaomi, Internet giants Alibaba and JD.com also released smart speakers recently.

“The smart speaker is still a niche market in China now unless it has a complete eco-system and huge-volume users,” said Jia Mo, an analyst at Canalys.