A young boy enjoys a ride on a box containing a new Haier air conditioner purchased at a Target store sale in New York. Haier has an $18 billion global business, and is the fourth-largest whitegoods manufacturer in the world.

Haier Group, the computer division of Chinese appliance maker, and US-based NComputing have formed a strategic partnership to provide low-cost computers to educational and government institutions around the world, which will enable Haier Computing to expand in the US market for the first time and increase the company’s presence in more than 30 countries in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and South America.
lHaier Computers is one of China’s larger PC companies,but it hasn’t had a large presence overseas and is virtually unknown outside China.
NComputing makes “virtual desktops” with its vSpace software that allows up to 11 users to work on one PC as if it were a server, giving end users the experience of working on a dedicated PC.
Stephen Dukker, the NComputing CEO said “When you take a look at large project in education in the developing world, often they get donated old, used computers. These have a terrible result such as generating tons of E-waste and very high operating costs. Whereas here is a brand new technology that has remarkably reduced the cost of computing, and is removing the last barriers to deploying virtual computers everywhere.”
There, the two companies helped the Macedonian government install 180,000 computing stations throughout its school system.
It was the largest project NComputing had tackled, and the largest offshore installation Haier has completed to date.
A spokesman for Haier said “At that time, we compared many solutions, but found NComputing multi-user solutions were the most economical. The combined solution with Haier host PCs and monitors was very well suited for Macedonia’s primary and secondary schools’ needs.
The two companies will initially target 18 countries in Africa, Europe, Asia and Latin America that have large-scale computerization projects in schools and government offices, under the terms of the current agreement. In the next eight months, the two companies will be working together on deals representing approximately 1.5 million workstations. Over time, Haier and NComputing expect to expand the partnership to other countries.
Dukker said “Haier is an outstanding partner. They have manufacturing facilities associated with their appliance businesses in many parts of the world, which gives Haier a tremendous advantage.”He added that the two are working together on programs in Nigeria, where Haier has most of its China electronics manufacturer sources for the African markets.