Haier Releases World’s First Smart Homekit Air Conditioner and Builds Own Open Smart Home Platform

Beijing, March 13, 2015 - Haier, the world’s leading home appliances and consumer electronics brand, has released a number of smart innovations at the 14^th Appliance World Expo (AWE 2015) currently being held in Shanghai, China, showcasing its leading position in intelligent appliance development. As the first and sole Chinese home appliance enterprise to cooperate with Apple on its HomeKit platform, these innovations include the world’s first smart air conditioner based on Apple’s HomeKit iOS platform using Siri voice control, which will bring users an effortless smart home experience. They also include the world’s first 3-D printed air conditioner, a high-end customized product in Haier’s smart air ecosystem.

In addition to intelligent appliances, Haier also released its ‘U+ Smart Life’ App at the ongoing AWE 2015, which will allow users to easily realize human-computer interaction (HCI) with various Haier home appliances linked to Haier’s own ‘U+ Smart Life’ platform. This App already supports connectivity with more than one hundred brands, including Apple, bringing better user experiences for Haier’s HomeKit Air Conditioner, as well as Microsoft. Haier and Microsoft cooperated together to jointly enable an HCI mode whereby users can remotely control smart devices on the platform through human-like communications with Microsoft’s Xiaobing chatbot. Haier Asia International, an Asian arm of Haier Group, also plans to release a new refrigerator this summer in Japan using an Android control system. Internet-connected users would then be able to remotely check the ingredients in the refrigerator amongst other functions. 

Haier’s "U+ Smart Life" platform is a fully-open, fully-individualized, and fully-interactive smart home system. It is interoperable not only with all of Haier’s intelligent appliances, but also with various other third-party devices. The platform is the smart home entranceway for users and is also connected to Haier’s online factories. In this way, users can communicate through the platform directly with Haier’s factories to suggest individualized customizations. These new orders will then automatically be spread to Haier’s global suppliers to design the suggested features and product enhancements.

Haier’s ‘U+ Smart Life’ platform and its production of intelligent home appliances showcase its leading role in smart home development and its focus on adapting to the changing dynamics of the Internet era. For Haier, this does not only mean deploying the Internet within product design, but also implanting Internet thinking into its entire business model. The Internet has allowed the company to transform from an enterprise-centric to a user-centric model that involves users in corporate management. Through its new manufacturing model, Haier’s online factories will allow users’ individualised requirements and orders to be turned from potential into reality by enabling Internet-connected customers to participate in the R&D and manufacturing processes. So, as Haier’s ‘U+ Smart Life’ platform will transform home appliances into an intelligent, interconnected Internet terminal with coordination and sharing functions, Haier itself is mirroring this to become an intelligent, interconnected enterprise that engages with its users and entrepreneurs around the world to develop mass customization of these appliances.