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Smart Home Suite from Xiaomi

Pawan Fangaria

New member
As expected, Xiaomi is going to play big in IoT arena with multiple devices connected between them and controlled through its smartphone. So, it's not only smartphone player, it's a player of IoT system now!

Yesterday (the Sunday) at GeekPark Innovation Festival in Beijing, Xiaomi unveiled brand new Smart Home Suite which contains a human motion sensor, a pair of very simple door and window sensors that can be controlled by a smartphone and provides home security. The suite also has a wireless switching device that can control home appliances and a multi-function gateway that links the components with other devices through Wi-Fi, thus allowing a smartphone to control the overall system of devices.

The consumer level test of the Smart Home Suite is yet to happen in a few days.

So, where do we see Xiaomi heading? Neck-to-Neck with Apple and Samsung?

We are yet to see the pricing of the suite, but I guess it will be much lower compared to others. If Xiaomi can bring disruptive "Innovation" at low prices, then it can be serious threat to the other two. In such a competition, also with multiple other low cost leaders, the two top companies need to re-look at their cost and pricing, otherwise they may witness 'boiling frog' syndrome!
 
I agree, we aren't entering a world where the layers between the consumer and producer are being reduced. They are actually being shifted to the layers on the other side of the seller where everything from software, components, assembly and even delivery is handled by others, making many companies sophisticated aggregators that can change their models/product line at a speed undreamed of just a generation ago. Just like Apple having just a small fraction of the employees involved with designing, building and handling the logistics of their product. Xiaomi is just another incantation of this model. If not careful, companies can rise and fall at amazing speed, just look at Nokia and Motorola.
 
As part of its strategy to expand in IoT market, Xiaomi plans to sell its smart-home products including web-enabled air purifiers, TVs, security camera, smart-bulbs etc. in Indian market.

In case of smartphones it's doing well in India and plans to also setup a manufacturing factory here. Smartphones would anyway be central to web-enabled products for IoT.
 
Xiaomi's strategy in China is invest in companies that develop non-phone devices, rather than doing them in house. I suspect the model might be welcome in India and even work better there, combining Xiaomi's HW supply chain strength in China and strong SW expertise of its ecosystem in India. If Xiaomi could integrate tech and business resources both inside and outside the company, things could get exciting.

The caveat is how the profit margin - made razor-thin by Xiaomi's "bottom-feeding" strategy - could be divvied up.
 
Xiaomi has already started production of smartphones in India for India sales, so that saves some of the operational costs. Last week it launched its first India made phone "Redmi 2 Prime" at a price slightly above $100
 
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