Xiaomi Enters the Chinese Home Appliances Market with the Smart Rice Cooker
Companies across the world are resorting to innovative means and embracing technological advancements to launch products that make our day-to-day lives convenient and exciting. Every new product that is launched today encompasses top notch technological and design concepts that manage to captivate us with the features they possess and the things they can achieve.
The Mi Ecosystem
Xiaomi, primarily a Chinese manufacturer of smartphones, enjoys immense success in the smartphone market due to their innovative design, competitive pricing and feature-rich capabilities. In a bid to expand the ecosystem and offer smart home products, Xiaomi has invested in a total of 55 companies and aims to promote an upgrade in Chinese manufacturing with a new concept of ‘Made in China’ products. To add to its wide range of products, Xiaomi has announced a new sub-brand of innovative products under the Mi Ecosystem, with the Smart Rice Cooker being one of the first to be launched.
Entering the Home Appliances Market
Xiaomi has been long trying to expand its presence, and offer products in various product lines like mobile phones, tablets, network routers, cloud storage services, power banks, smart home products and fitness trackers. With the launch of the high performance Smart Rice Cooker that works with an app, Xiaomi is entering the Chinese home appliances market in the best way possible. The Smart Rice Cooker offers high performance at an extremely affordable cost, and aspires to be an integral part of every Chinese household.
Minimalistic Design
While Japanese brands are known for rice cookers, Xiaomi has taken a cue or two in order to offer a cooker that creates more flavourful rice. The Smart Rice Cooker incorporates a sleek and simple design, with a handful of smart features and a price that will give competitors a run for their money. The Smart Rice Cooker is made from a cast iron bowl with Teflon coating that helps achieve optimal regenerative heating and also ensures the rice is evenly cooked.
Smart Features of Smart Rice Cooker
Cooking rice is an art in its own, which needs to be mastered. As it can easily be overcooked or undercooked, having an appliance which makes sure it is cooked to perfection is a blessing. The Smart Rice Cooker enables users to use their smartphone to scan the barcode on different types of rice. Based on the type, the cooker automatically adjusts its methodology and temperature to suit the rice type, the brand, its origin and users’ taste. Xiaomi has catalogued around 200 different brands of rice so far for this purpose, and intends to expand this selection in the future. Xiaomi has also tested about 2,450 combinations of cooking methods to ensure rice is cooked in the best way possible.
Mi Home App
The Smart Rice Cooker can be controlled using Xiaomi’s Mi Home app. The app helps users set-up the ideal cooking settings for their rice, after scanning through a library of rice types and brands to achieve the desired softness. The Smart Rice cooker can not only be used to cook rice, but also to make cakes and other delicious items too. Users can simply look up the recipe and then set the heating method in the app.
Modestly Priced
Xiaomi’s Smart Rice Cooker is priced at a modest $153 or 999 Yuan, which is almost 40% cheaper than other rival brands available in the market. The product is expected to be launched on 6th April 2016. However, like most other Xiaomi products, there is a high probability that the Smart Rice Cooker will be available for sale only in China, atleast initially.
Nisarg is the Business Development Manager at Nimblechapps, a top mobile game development company and has been with the organisation since its inception in 2014. He likes to update his knowledge on changing trends in technology and marketing and pens his thoughts regarding the same on various blogs and LinkedIn.