Baidu and Xiaomi announce strategic partnership.
Two of China’s big tech companies have decided to join hands to explore exciting opportunities in the Internet of Things (IOT) and artificial intelligence (AI). These two companies are Baidu and Xiaomi, which are recognized as powerhouses in their respective fields. While the former is a search giant with a market capitalization of whopping $86 billion, the latter is considered as Apple of China and the one that is giving Steve Job’s iconic company a real run for its money.
The tie up was announced at Xiaomi’s first developer conference in Beijing today. Although the exact details of this partnership are still very sketchy, both tech giants have announced that they will seek growth potential in voice recognition, deep learning and computer vision. The two companies will also work to further improve DuerOS, the new conversational AI assistant launched by Baidu last month. Xiaomi can also step in to play a joint venture role in other ambitious Baidu projects like robotics, AR, VR and self-driving cars.
Xiaomi, on other hand, is no slouch in the technology game. The company has laid a new benchmark in the mobile industry with its budget phones that are high on configuration. Its smartphones proved to be a game changer for the market that was once dominated by expensive Samsung and Apple phones. Xiaomi has also created several cutting-edge products for smart TVs, smartwatches, range of home appliances and even electric scooter.
Although fruits of this partnership will be largely restricted to Chinese market, the global market will most certainly stand to benefit in the long run from this tie-up. Only time will tell how this partnership will affect AI and IOT market, but it is surely a right step in right direction in unshackling two of the hottest emerging technologies.
