When Jesse Lyu presented the Rabbit R1 at the CES in Las Vegas, the world of artificial intelligence went crazy. It went viral on social media and the device, a small gadget with a screen, camera, microphone, independent of the mobile phone and, at the same time, totally dependent on the cloud and artificial intelligence, was a hit. He sold 100,000 units. Today, barely 5% of its buyers use it.
The dataOf the 100,000 users who bought the Rabbit R1, which, remember, cost $199, only 5% use it on a daily basis. We are talking, in fact, about 5,000 people. The figure is not given by a consultancy or a financial report. It was given by Jesse Lyu, CEO of Rabbit, at a conference organized by Fast Company.
A premature launch. The Rabbit R1, one of the first AI devices alongside Humane’s AI Pin, was heavily criticized upon its release. Not only was it slow and lacking in several features, but it was unclear exactly what it was actually for. The device was also found to be running Android, so the community was quick to extract the APK and run it on other devices, from a Pixel 6 to an iPhone. In other words, it was a device that could be an app.
Jesse Lyu explains that the reason for launching the product so quickly was that “if you’re a startup, you better launch early. Period.” This phrase refers to the fact that the big industry giants like Google, Apple or Samsung have enough resources to pressure smaller entrepreneurs, so you have to be prepared for things to go wrong in order to get a head start in the market.
See it allAs they say, he who strikes first strikes twice, and that seems to have been the idea with the Rabbit R1: get ahead, set a precedent, and iterate. In any case, the reality is that the Rabbit R1, like Humane’s AI Pin, was heavily criticized. After all, it was a product that didn’t feel right and that the user was paying for.
In that sense, Ly says he watches “every piece of YouTube coverage, I watch every shitty Twitter post. I have a Notion file that I document by the timestamp of, ‘Oh, this guy complained about that, and that guy complained about this. ’” Regardless, these devices are competing with others that virtually all of us carry in our pockets that, for all intents and purposes, serve the same function.
Rabbit R1 | Image: Rabbit edited by WorldOfSoftware
The mobileDevices like the Rabbit R1 or the AI Pin can be somewhat redundant. After all, mobile phones are capable of running artificial intelligence models or, failing that, offering access via the Internet. They offer what a mobile phone does, but without the advantages of a mobile phone.
In what context is a device that can order me an Uber necessary when it takes me less time to do so with the mobile app? Do I need an additional device to get directions when I can just take my phone out of my pocket to get them? These are some of the questions that these types of gadgets still have to answer, especially with Google and Apple pushing as hard as they are. Maybe Jony Ive and OpenAI will be able to do it.
Imagen | Rabbit
At WorldOfSoftware | The Rabbit R1 and the Humane AI Pin are too green. It turns out that we already have the best AI device in our pocket
