China-based internet titans make a big push into educational hardware market

Following the launch of new educational hardware products by ByteDance and Tencent in the past few months, China-based internet titan Baidu also makes a big push into the educational hardware sector. But unlike those two companies which focused on smart desk lamps, Baidu launches a Xiaodu Smart Learning Tablet today.The tablet provides tutoring of Chinese, English, and Mathematics, involving free textbooks from Grade 1 to 12 and various features like searching for answers by uploading question photos and clicking words to get definitions. There are more than 400 educational applications in it, and parents can monitor the using process. Plus, the smart learning tablet supports the eye’s protective mechanism, which can actively correct students’ seated posture.Jing Kun, vice president of Baidu and CEO of Xiaodu Technology(the artificial intelligence business subsidiary of Baidu), said that there are three major problems of online education in family scenarios:(1)Parents have limited ability to help with children’s learning tasks.(2)Children face difficulty developing good learning habits. (3)A lot of intelligent devices are not specially designed for students to use. Thus Xiaodu Smart Learning Tablet priced at RMB1299 was launched to solve these pain points.“Xiaodu focuses on customer acquisition and the creation of educational scenarios while education companies provide content services.” At the 2019 Baidu Create AI Developer Conference, Jing Kun once mentioned that Xiaodu aimed to become the “largest children’s family education platform”. Moreover, Xiaodu also releases the “Xiaodu WiFi6 Smart Router” today, which supports application and website shielding and protects children from harmful information.