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Xiaomi unveils a smart rice cooker as part of its new Mi Ecosystem sub-brand
Today, Xiaomi has announced a new company sub-brand called Mi Ecosystem, or Mijia in China. The newly created brand will encompass new smart home products. Xiaomi already has a range of household electronics on sale in China, including an air purifier, a range of large 4K television sets, and a selection of security sensors, so clearly the company is keen to continue expanding beyond its successful smartphone business.
The first product to be announced under the Mi Ecosystem brand is the Mi Induction Heating Pressure Rice Cooker, which isn’t named quite as shortly or sweetly as the company’s handsets. Being a smartphone company, this isn’t any ordinary rice cook though. It comes with a companion app that is used to set-up the ideal cooking settings for your rice.
The app is used to scan bar-codes on packages, which is then used to search through a library of rice types, brands, and origins, to automatically find the perfect cooking settings for your desired rice softness. Xiaomi mentioned that it has a portfolio of over 200 brands in its database and some 2,450 cooking method combinations.
In typical Xiaomi fashion, the smart rice cooker is substantially cheaper than products offered by leading rival manufacturers. The cooker is priced at just 999 yuan, or about $150, which makes it four to five times cheaper than rival products from Japanese companies such as Tiger, Toshiba, or Zojirushi. Xiaomi hasn’t skimped out on quality either, as the rice cooker features an expensive grey cast iron inner pot for even cooking.
The Mi Induction Heating Pressure Rice Cooker will go on sale in China on April 6th, with other products to follow in the future. As with Xiaomi’s current range of smart home products, it’s unlikely that the cooker will go on sale outside of China any time soon.