At the recent International Home + Housewares Show, Winix showcased a new joint venture with JBL, a leader in audio/visual product development, featuring a new air purifier with a built-in Bluetooth speaker.
The unit syncs to a user’s smart device via Bluetooth for remote audio play and features the company’s tower design, available in both black and white colors. The air cleaner will be available in the U.S. in September, and is an addition to the company’s current lineup of air purifiers including its recently launched WiFi enabled unit.
“This is exciting, it’s the first time that JBL is doing something like this. It’s a great quality speaker, and they’ve been really involved in how it would work in the frame of the air cleaner,” said Tony Kircher, president of Winix. “The idea is we’re taking care of your home environment in the quality of the air and now also the sound in the air.”
Kircher noted that the air cleaner is unique in the space in that it does not unite competing applications, such as dehumidification and air purification, a pain point that some retail buyers have noted. “The buyers that we deal with have always resisted the idea of two-in-one products. What you usually end up with is a product that doesn’t do either one of those things well. This is the first time I’ve seen a product that I believe does both things really well,” he said.
Kircher added, “It’s a great thing for Winix to pair up with someone like JBL. They’re an elite brand, a really cool company and innovative, and we have a lot of ideas on what we can do with them further. I think this is just the start of that partnership.”
