Bloomberg’s Edmond Lococo reports on the launch of a sleek, compact and affordable (899元/$145) smartphone-controlled home air purifier by booming Chinese phone company Xiaomi:
It was a mild barb from one Chinese technology tycoon to another. At an Internet conference last month, Jack Ma asked Xiaomi Corp.’s Lei Jun how much making a good smartphone mattered when the air and water were so bad?
[…] “We are studying Ma Yun,” Lei, Xiaomi’s chief executive officer, said referring to the Alibaba founder by his Chinese name after recounting his exchange with Ma at a news conference in Beijing to announce the Mi Air Purifier. “The pollution today is very, very bad. That’s why I really believe that everyone needs this kind of product.”
[…] “If you sell them at too expensive a price, the contribution to society isn’t that great,” Lei said. [Source]
While it marks a departure in function, the device may not help Xiaomi leave behind accusations of copying Apple’s designs given its resemblance to the Cupertino-based company’s AirPort Extreme wifi router.
See more on the Mi Air Purifier from the company’s Twitter and YouTube accounts:
Today we launch our 1st Mi Air Purifier for ￥899! It filters 99.99% of PM2.5 & provides 10k liters of clean air/min. pic.twitter.com/c6gZEfLfiI
— Xiaomi #FortuneGlobal500 (@Xiaomi) December 9, 2014
Mi Air Purifier: Aerodynamically designed; Smartphone control & alerts; Occupies area equivalent to A4 sized paper. pic.twitter.com/7d8ku0Tlv8
— Xiaomi #FortuneGlobal500 (@Xiaomi) December 9, 2014
