GUANGDONG, China, Jan. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Alpha (www.gdalpha.com) yesterday announced the launch of its S Plan – a $304 million initiative aimed at developing a range of smart devices from smart robots to smart watches. As part of the initiative, Alpha revealed its strategic partnership with leading robot developers and manufacturers, Blue Frog Robotics and Turing Robot, to build China's first "Smart Home Ecosystem."
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The S Plan entails the establishment of Alpha Smart Technologies, which will seek to extend Alpha's core competitive edge in creating content for children, to creating smart devices for children, paving the way for Alpha's full entry into the smart home market in the future.
"We do not want to build impersonal hardware and platforms," said Lin Bin, Chief Strategy Officer, Alpha Smart Technologies. "We want them to be a melting pot of family emotions that is welcomed by children and trusted by the parents. The partnership we struck with Turing and Blue Frog will allow us to take full advantage of smart technologies in order to build a network of friends and a whole ecosystem around children."
As a result of the partnership, Alpha formally introduced its Jett Companion Robot and JIAJIA Social Robot, which are designed for children and their parents.
Jett, a companion robot for preschoolers based on the character from the popular animated series Super Wings, is powered by the Turing operating system developed by Turing Robot. Equipped with voice recognition, semantic analysis, emotion recognition, visual identification, and self-learning capabilities, the smart robot can hear, see, analyze, and decide, empowering it to accompany children in their growth.
Just as important as the robot's technical functions, is Jett's familiarity as a household character, being the flying robot in Alpha's animation Super Wings, the first season of which has been aired in 28 countries and regions, earning top viewership ratings among similar animations in the U.S., China, and South Korea.
"The popularity of Jett's character will allow our products to connect emotionally with consumers," said Liao Bin, Chief Product Officer, Alpha Smart Technologies. "Being a content creator we understand the latest needs amongst children. The more popular a product is, the easier it will be to build rich interactions and multi-dimensional emotional links around it, making it more memorable."
JIAJIA smart devices range from robots to smart watches. Products under this brand are designed to make it easier for children to connect with the people they love using a mobile app on the parents' smartphone that serves as the nexus that links JIAJIA devices together.
"Our future Smart Home Ecosystem will be built around smart robots and devices, covering education, animations, maternal-infant online stores, social networking, gaming, and other cornerstone industries, thereby transforming every home into an amusement park," said Chen Jingqing, CEO, Alpha Smart Technologies.
"The future looks very bright," said Yu Zhichen, CEO, Turing Robot. "Robots designed for children are not limited to being toys and storytellers, but they are in fact a large computing platform. In that capacity, they are poised to become a super gateway for a family's entertainment, education, and living needs, not to mention applications such as Internet of Things."
Also at the January 20, 2016 press conference, Alpha announced a strategic partnership with Blue Frog Robotics, the French company responsible for creating BUDDY, which is billed as the "world's first robotic steward." By leveraging its expertise in creating, operating, and marketing IPs and virtual avatars, Alpha will provide a one-stop localization service covering the promotion, marketing, sales, and operations of BUDDY in Greater China. Meanwhile, BUDDY will help connect international audiences with Alpha's rich repertoire of animation shows and educational programs, upgrading their home entertainment experience with the "IP + Smart" paradigm.
About Alpha Smart Technologies:
As a part of Guangdong Alpha Animation and Culture Company Ltd, one of the world's largest developers of animation and toys, Alpha Smart Technologies has the most extensive IP matrix and content lineup for China's K-12 group, as well as solid industry platforms and the sharpest insights about children as consumers. With a projection of having more than one million smartwatches and robots by 2016, Alpha will be the cornerstone for the largest gateway to the smart device market for children. The conversion of technology into application, so that children may physically and meaningfully interact with characters who had previously existed only in the virtual world, and experience the joy that technology brings, is Alpha's motivation and starting point for building its smart ecosystem.
SOURCE Alpha Smart Technologies
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