Dedicated AI hardware devices like the Rabbit R1 and Humane AI Pin have so far failed to gain market traction due to their limited functionality in a world accustomed to feature-rich flagships like the iPhone.
The Humane AI Pin has a futuristic feel to it, but it doesn’t work very well.
This isn’t to say that these companies, or future ones, should back away. The secret these AI-focused companies are missing is that extending smartphone functionality with clever hardware, as Amazon’s Ring and Google’s Nest accessories have done, is the right direction to go.
The rise of AI will inevitably force many of today’s technologies and devices to evolve, but for now, smartphones are at the forefront of cutting edge technology and aren’t likely to go anywhere soon.
The popularity of smartphones and the devices that extend them only reflects the incredible versatility of these clever, multi-purpose devices that can be easily customized to suit your needs. For challengers of the smartphone, rather than its supporters, the road to success is currently very tough.
AI is not hardware
In recent months, the Humane AI Pin and the recently announced Limitless Pendant have debuted or been announced as AI wearables, while Rabbit R1 is a handheld, toy-like AI chatbot that aims to replace Google search and some basic smartphone functions.
Neither the Humane Pin nor the Rabbit R1 gained traction in the marketplace at all: they were either too expensive for what they offered, or not good enough, or both. Anyone with an iPhone, Apple Watch, or Android equivalent is unlikely to be drawn to these early “AI hardware” devices.
To be fair, premium smartphones are much more expensive both up front and in ongoing service, and the original smartphone didn’t do much compared to what we can do today, but it represented potential adaptability.
The Humane AI Pin has some great features, but its growth is hindered by a lack of hardware versatility, the same problem the Rabbit R1 has.
While smartphones dominate many single-device markets — dedicated GPS units still exist, smart home security hardware that works with smartphones is doing well, smart speakers are thriving — devices that embrace and extend the functionality of smartphones, rather than mimicking some of their features, are finding a market.
One of the factors that may have contributed to the failure of the Humane Pin and Rabbit R1 is the strong emphasis on AI as a buzzword, even though these devices were developed years before commercial applications of AI emerged. These gadgets only exist because of AI, and we know that nearly every smart device on the market is racing to add AI capabilities, so there is little reason for users to abandon what they’re familiar with for something else.
For a small percentage of consumers, a wearable AI assistant that can answer basic questions and take photos and audio recordings may suit their needs, and a limited-purpose device like the Humane AI Pin might have won over those customers if it was marketed as a way to lighten the load by leaving your iPhone at home — ironically, this is one of the big selling points of the cellular-enabled Apple Watch.
The idea of putting one back in your pocket with a wearable or handheld AI device with internet access is appealing. The problem is, we will likely have to wait many years before today’s AI wearables can prove their worth compared to the usefulness and convenience of a smartphone.
Current competition
The three main devices looking to replace or in some cases replace smartphones are the Humane AI Pin, the pocket-sized Rabbit R1, and the yet-to-be-released Limitless Pendant, which is expected to launch in August 2024. Both the R1 and the Humane Pin offer a way to ask questions and get answers over Wi-Fi or cellular internet connections, among other features.
The Humane AI Pin is meant to have an overall feel similar to a Star Trek: The Next Generation communicator: it attaches magnetically to the backplate underneath your shirt and interacts with you by tapping, responding with voice and projecting information onto your palm with a laser.
Unfortunately, the projected image is hard to see in sunlight, the audio can be distracting in public places, the battery life is awful, and the device reportedly overheats quickly. It costs $700, plus a $24 monthly subscription fee.
While the R1 Rabbit may remind some people of non-wearable devices like the Tamagotchi game or Nintendo’s Playdate, it’s similar in functionality to the Humane AI Pin: a small, lightweight plastic rectangle with a scroll wheel and “push-to-talk” button, although some of its functions could just as easily be performed on a smartphone.
It costs $199 and requires no subscription, but you’ll need to pay for a 4G LTE data plan (the Rabbit R1 has a SIM card slot) or have a hotspot connection to your smartphone when you’re not connected to Wi-Fi.
While the market was put off by the initial R1 offering, future versions may prove popular as a smartphone alternative for kids. With age-appropriate safety measures in place for the AI and some of the games, this could be a more attractive alternative to buying their own smartphone for a younger target market.
One of the newest entrants in the emerging AI hardware industry is the Limitless Pendant, a clip-on or chain-on device roughly the same size and shape as two AirTags in a protective case, available in multiple colors. The gadget’s functionality is very limited, but more focused than Rabbit and Humane’s devices.
Limitless’ Pendant wearable records audio and creates summaries, notes, and transcripts.
The main purpose of the pendant is to record audio and create AI-generated summaries, notes and transcripts to help refresh your memory of meetings and other interactions. It’s a very useful and unobtrusive feature, but you must get consent from participants before recording.
What makes this product interesting is that, unlike the other two, it offers some AI-based convenience features that aren’t available on the iPhone yet, though it’s possible that similar features will be added by Apple later this year.
But the pendant can record meetings and create easy-to-read transcripts, notes, and summaries much more discreetly than whipping out your smartphone. This, along with its reasonable price, is likely to help the Limitless Pendant find a niche among consumers.
It’s currently priced at $99 during the pre-order period, and there’s a free plan that limits recording time to 10 hours, and an unlimited plan for $19 per month.
“It’s a feature, not a product.”
The quote above is from Steve Jobs himself, and it accurately predicts the main problem with these devices: Apple, Microsoft, and Google also make single-purpose products, but they are all designed to power the “hub” of their respective computers and smartphones.
AirTags are single-purpose devices that connect to existing Apple infrastructure.
Aside from laser-projecting hard-to-read text onto your palm, the iPhone can do almost everything these competing devices do, just faster and better. Apple is expected to add a host of AI features to the iPhone in iOS 18, which was announced at WWDC and is due to ship in fall 2024.
The versatility of being able to add new features to older iPhone models through OS updates is a huge advantage, compared to the fact that standalone wearables and pocket-sized devices are (at least for now) very limited in the range of “tricks” they can perform, even when done well.
Customers already know and love many of the apps and services that come with iPhone, but they can also add more apps and services from a variety of developers. Apple has developed a platform that users can customize and extend to suit their preferences.
Future versions of the Humane, Rabbit, and Limitless devices (if there are any) are unlikely to be able to scale on that scale: Humane has already been sold, and it’s a figurative, if not literal, “throw in the towel” moment.
Founded by ex-Apple engineers, the company started in 2018 with a mission to develop hardware products. After five years of nothing, the company pivoted to AI as the engine for its “Smart Pin,” as did other Silicon Valley companies.
Failure of these devices will likely result in first generation products never being updated – they will either be replaced by second generation hardware or simply become orphaned due to lack of market adoption.
The approach taken by Apple, Google and Microsoft is clearly the better way: take existing apps and features that users love to use, leverage AI where appropriate, on a general-purpose platform, and iteratively improve them. There’s no point trying to reinvent the wheel.
Standalone AI hardware complicates users’ lives, often requiring a separate subscription on top of it, and so far they aren’t designed to work seamlessly with the technology users already own and use.
It’s also hard to see how a standalone product — even a focused, fairly attractive wearable like the Limitless Pendant — leaves room to grow and evolve as consumer needs change.
Of course, after years of use, a smartphone will become outdated and need to be replaced, but its multifaceted functionality will allow it to appeal to a much wider range of users, whereas an AI chatbot in wearable form, with little else to offer, is still too novel and specialized to break into the mainstream and therefore unlikely to be profitable.
Single-purpose devices can certainly be successful in the technology market – Amazon’s Ring doorbell, Kindle e-reader, and Alexa smart speaker are good examples – but the key to their success is that they work with and extend existing technology by adding new features.
Of the new AI-driven devices on the market, only the Limitless Pendant is on track to be embraced by its target market.