Xiaomi’s smart home brand MIJIA launched its smart rice cooker last Tuesday (Mar 29). Considering that China’s leading air conditioner manufacturer Gree released a smart rice cooker just three weeks ago, Xiaomi’s new product seems to be escalating the competition between Gree and Xiaomi in the smart home field.
Xiaomi’s Mi Induction Heating (IH) Pressure Rice Cooker is designed by Naito Takeshi, a former Sanyo engineer and co-inventor of the IH pressure rice cooker, which can optimize the texture of rice through a smartphone app. And it is priced at RMB 999 (USD 153), far lower than the RMB 4,000 or so for Japanese versions with comparable specs.
This post comes courtesy of our content partners All China Tech.
“Compared with most Chinese rice cookers, high-end Japanese rice cookers perform a lot better,” said Xiaomi’s CEO Leijun. “This time we want to launch a rice cooker that can compete with the Japanese ones and beat them, at a lower price.”
Gree also sees the opportunity in rice cookers. On March 8, Gree unveiled its smart rice cooker at a conference held in Beijing. The “TOSOT Induction Heating Rice Cooker” is priced at RMB 1,199.
The enmity between Lei and Gree’s president Dong Mingzhu started last year, when they initiated a fierce verbal battle over their smartphone businesses. However, the two presented similar concerns during China’s Two Sessions earlier this month, expressing their concerns about the prevailing trend of Japanese rice cookers in China.
“At first, I thought the Chinese affection for Japanese rice cookers was just people blindly following a trend,” Lei said at the meetings. “But after market research, we found that the Japanese products are superior to ours.”
“I get angry about people going abroad to purchase their rice cookers,” said Dong. “There is no reason why we can’t make our own rice cooker brands with so many manufacturers in China.”
Some have predicted fierce market competition in the Chinese high-end rice cooker industry. But Chinese consumers will certainly benefit from it. More cheap, high-end rice cookers will be made, which will help Chinese rice cooker brands stand out globally, some say.
Photo: bacafakta.files.wordpress.com, 52.com
Except for the sensor (which is located after the filter so the number actually makes sense, but it's a bad location) the machine works very well, same as the xiaomi band (many review saying it had the best tracker, even compared to band 10x more expensive).
The smart lamp is also pretty cool (wakes me up in the morning, and sceduled to be on before I arrive home in the evening).
Can't blame the whole brand for 1 mistake in 1 product.
If their rice cooker is as "smart" as their air filter, it's got a lot of learning to do.
Xiaomi's a pretty cool company I gotta admit, and I bought one of their air filters which comes with a built-in sensor, a nifty iPhone app and a bargain basement price (899). The thing cleans the air but the sensor is garbage -- it shows air quailty levels that are way, way off from reality (the other day the PM 2.5 concentration outside was in the upper 80s, and I had my windows open -- and my Laser Egg was showing the same PM 2.5 concentrations indoors (upper 80s) as would be expected.
My "smart" xiaomi was telling me the PM 2.5 concentration was 4. Just not possible, even right next to the machine
