The southern Chinese city of Shunde in Guangdong was the site last week for Huawei's consumer business CEO Yu Chengdong and Midea Group's chairman Fang Hongbo to sign a strategic cooperation framework for development within the smart home sector.
The financial terms of the deal were not revealed, but the two parties will jointly develop smart home solutions that combine Internet of Things services and artificial intelligence.
Commenting on the cooperation, Yu said that the two parties will combine Huawei's strong connectivity services and smart device experience with Midea's home appliance experience and bring them to the smart home sector. With their strong capabilities and complementary advantages, the two companies aim to accelerate Chinese families' entry into the smart home age.
Fang said that smart home is an important focus for Midea Group's strategy and its development is going through a crucial stage. With the cooperation, Midea Group and Huawei's consumer business will realize cross-industry collaboration and the two parties will build reliable, easy-to-use, and interactive smart home overall solutions. They will provide better smart home experience to consumers while achieving greater business value.
In addition, the two parties said that they will enhance cooperation in next-generation Internet of Things chips, operating systems, IoT security, and data sharing. In the future, they will seek possibilities of joint development and build new business expansion.
