Tech firms expand into smart home sector
Chinese tech firms, including Huawei and Viomi, are developing full-house smart systems and gear with 5G connections and chips.
Smart full-house systems include AI-featured home appliances featuring artificial intelligence, wireless connections and intelligent centers.
Viomi, supported and invested by Xiaomi Corp, has launched an AI-featured toilet, water purifier, heater and air conditioner to improve its smart home system.
The Nasdaq-listed firm has also established a research team with a Nobel laureate in AI and smart home innovations, which helps it expand its product categories and footprint. George Fitzgerald Smoot, who won the Nobel Prize for physics in 2006, has become Viomi’s chief AI scientist.
The Nasdaq-listed firm now has 60 categories of smart home appliances, with a “HomeMap” system with AI features covering water, air, security and other parts of a smart home. It now has over 2,000 experience centers nationwide and 28,000 outlets serving “several million” families, according to Chen Xiaoping, Viomi’s founder and CEO.
Viomi upgraded smart home business during an online conference.
Viomi is the third big-name tech firms to launch smart home system in the past month.
Huawei, Orvibo and some startups have also expanded smart home business in China.
Huawei recently launched a smart home system with prices beginning at 99,999 yuan (US$15,384) that includes an intelligent HarmonyOS system and network connections, as the tech giant seeks new growth opportunities amid the United States technology ban. The smart home system is available for sales in June at the earliest.
