Xiaomi partners with Ikea to drive smart lighting products
Xiaomi has announced a strategic partnership with Swedish furniture company Ikea to drive IoT-connected smart lighting devices
From December this year, Xiaomi will be connecting the full range of Ikea’s smart lighting devices to its IoT network to simultaneously aid in Ikea’s digital transformation and adhering to Xiaomi’s IoT-based growth strategy.
The smart lightning devices will be controllable via Xiaomi’s smart speakers, according to South China Morning Post, whose Xiao Ai assistant is currently only available in Mandarin.
“AI plus IoT is Xiaomi’s core strategy,” said Xiaomi Chief Executive Lei Jun at a press conference on Wednesday, according to SCMP. “To connect everything needs collaboration with others.”
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China of course represents one of Ikea’s largest market opportunities, and the firm is keen to significantly expand its footprint.
In an interview with SCMP, Anna Pawlak Kuliga, Ikea China’s Chief Executive, said it would restructure to accommodate this expansion, cutting 160 existing roles and creating 3,200 new ones over the next two years.
“China is a very important market for Ikea and it’s changing rapidly, so we are changing our organisation accordingly,” Kuliga told SCMP, which added that Ikea China will open a host of new brick-and-mortar stores around the country.
Xiaomi said that, as of September this year, it has connected 132mn IoT devices.
