BEIJING, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi announced its partnership with Ikea of Sweden in developing smart home products at Xiaomi's MIDC conference in Beijing on Wednesday, China Daily reported.
Starting from December, users will be able to use Xiaomi's smart voice assistant XiaoAi and the Mijia mobile app to control Ikea's smart lighting products.
Aiming to expand into the booming sectors of artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things (IoT), Xiaomi's tie-up with Ikea is expected to "create smart products for many people, really making them affordable and also easy to understand," Bjorn Block, business leader for Ikea's Home Smart division, was cited by the paper as saying.
Also on Wednesday, Xiaomi unveiled its team-up with Microsoft to offer smart voice solutions at the MIDC Xiaomi AIoT Developer Conference.
Founded in 2010, Beijing-based Xiaomi has established one of the world's largest consumer IoT platform, with over 132 million smart devices powered by AI excluding smartphones and personal computers, according to the report.
