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At MWC24 held earlier this year, an AI hardware called AI Pin was launched. The product spokesperson shouted the slogan "Kill the smartphone" during the press conference. Due to the shocking effect of the demonstration video, Time magazine directly selected it as one of the best inventions of 2023, and the pre-order volume exceeded 4.5 million units in less than a month.

Xiao Lei's colleague isExperience AI Pin at MWC, and gave the evaluation that "it is impossible to replace mobile phones". Six months later, it turned out that his judgment at that time was very accurate.

As early as April, when the first batch of media reviews of AI Pin were released, everyone's experience was surprisingly consistent: slow response, poor battery life, device overheating, laser projection was not bright enough, and AI function performance was poor...Simply put, the media's advice to everyone is "beautiful garbage, don't buy it."

The latest news is that the first batch of AI Pin subscribers have been returning the products on a large scale.The Verge, a well-known technology media, said that from May to August this year, the number of AI Pin returns exceeded new sales.If the Vision Pro, which is facing a wave of returns, is experiencing a gradual decline, then the AI ​​Pin is facing a "free fall".

The smartphone that once wanted to kill it is now being returned en masse

Data shows that the total sales of Humane's AI Pin and accessories just exceeded US$9 million (about RMB 64.388 million). The shipment volume of AI Pin is about 10,000 units, which is only 10% of Humane's goal of shipping 100,000 units by April 2025.

As of June this year, approximately 8,000 AI Pins had not been returned; as of today, the number of devices still in customer hands is approximately 7,000.That is to say, about 1,000 AI Pins were returned in two months, which is higher than the new shipments of AI Pins in the past two months. At this rate of returns, AI Pins may hardly be seen on the market in less than a year.

It is worth noting that insiders revealed that once the AI ​​Pin is returned, the company will not be able to refurbish it, cutting off its secondary sales, and a large number of AI Pins will completely become electronic waste.

Fortunately, Humane still has time to make mistakes, and it has raised more than $200 million from Silicon Valley executives. Even if the AI ​​Pin fails to sell, it will not affect the company's operations in the short term, but in the long run, a completely failed AI device will definitely affect investors' confidence.

In fact, with just a brief review, we can find that there is a certain inevitability in the failure of AI Pin.As an independent wearable device without a screen, AI Pin supports network connection through eSIM, does not rely on mobile phones or other personal terminals, uses voice as the core interaction method, and also supports three types of interactions: laser projection, gestures, and touch (body surface).

Judging from the “screenless” product design, the AI ​​Pin team completely lacks awareness of user needs and human nature:Vision is the main way for humans to obtain information. Electronic products without screens can only be accessories, such as AirPods. When smart watches, smart home central control, smart speakers and even smart cars are emphasizing the value of "screens", AI Pin goes the other way. It would be strange if it didn't fail.

Due to the immaturity of machine vision technology, AI Pin can only obtain limited information about the real world through the camera, and visual interaction is unlikely to be fully available in the short term. The system design, which is highly dependent on large cloud models, makes AI Pin face connection and latency issues. In addition to the time it takes to generate the model, in the demonstration at MWC, AI Pin often has to wait for several seconds before responding.

We won’t go into details about the unbearable battery life, cumbersome and inefficient interaction methods, and lack of application ecology. Faced with a series of shortcomings, the high price of AI Pin at $699 has become a magnifying glass for the problems, not to mention the $24 monthly subscription fee.

In theory, everything that AI Pin can do can be done by mobile phones, and considering the more powerful computing power, screen and software ecosystem, mobile phones will most likely do better. This is also a challenge faced by all independent AI hardware.Although the design concept of AI Pin hanging on the chest to observe the world is very creative, it is still far from replacing mobile phones at this stage. It looks more like a product of an engineer's "fantasy". Although it has enough avant-garde ideas, it is really not practical.

When AI large model acceleration is combined with hardware, AI hardware such as AI mobile phones, AI PCs, AI TVs, and AI educational hardware have emerged and gained market recognition. However, there are also many AI hardware with strange shapes that appear as "new species" and follow the same pitfalls as AI Pin.

Countless “AI Pins” are on the road to failure

The chief analyst of market consulting firm Forrest once shared an interesting point of view: No one wants to show up at a masquerade party in plain clothes. This is a perfect description of the current AI hardware market. Any company is catering to the mainstream of the industry and showcasing its latest achievements in AI. Many of them are passive followers in order to "not appear out of place."

After adding AI functions to some traditional products, they have indeed brought better user experience to consumers, such as AI mobile phones that have become smarter, AI TVs with improved picture quality and sound quality, gas stoves with automatic temperature control, and so on.However, some products are purely useless and give people the feeling that they are more gimmicky than practical.

Canadian startup GluxKind Technologies has demonstrated a hands-free AI baby stroller called "Ella", which can automatically brake, sound the alarm, and drive itself when empty. When traveling, Ella also has an automatic rocking function, and with the customizable sleep-aiding sound machine inside the body, it claims to be able to coax babies to sleep. With the new concept, the price of this AI baby stroller has soared to $3,300.

There are still many AI baby strollers that focus on self-driving, but from the current point of view, the high-priced AI baby strollers are still difficult to popularize and cannot enter the mainstream market at all. In addition, these companies have ignored the importance that parents attach to their babies or "AI". If parents leave their babies alone in a stroller that may fail at any time, it is likely that the parents are not their biological children.

The AI ​​baby stroller is a typical example of "making products out of touch with reality". There are many similar cases. It’s not that AI can’t be used on these products, but that we need to find a more suitable entry point, which is what we often call the difference between "having AI" and "good AI".If this problem cannot be solved, it is foreseeable that the tragedy of AI Pin's failure will happen to more AI hardware.

What does ideal AI hardware look like?

Currently, AI hardware can be roughly divided into two routes: one is "AI+hardware", which is the traditional products mentioned above plus AI functions; the other is "AI native hardware", independent AI terminals represented by AI Pin and Rabbit R1.

The combination of AI and hardware is a strategy adopted by companies to create uniqueness in the highly competitive and product-homogeneous consumer electronics market, which is worthy of recognition.

The first type of "AI+hardware" currently has better market feedback because the corresponding products are already mature, and transforming products through AI is "icing on the cake". For example, AI mobile phones use AI to improve the imaging experience, and AI PCs use AI to improve work efficiency. There is no need to redefine the demand scenarios, and the difficulty and risk are much smaller.

The second type of "AI native hardware" adopts a new product form. Although it has enough novelty and even "gimmicks", it also faces greater challenges. In addition to the old topics such as educating the market and defining categories,The first thing to be considered is how to deal with the relationship between oneself and the mobile phone, whether to join the mobile phone ecosystem or try to replace the mobile phone.

AI Pin and Rabbit R1 are representatives of attempts to replace mobile phones, but they simply extract the AI ​​in smartphones and make a device that is only for specific scenarios. The functions of these devices highly overlap with those of mobile phones. However, in terms of other functions, their performance is usually not as good as that of mobile phones.

Mobile phones are still the core of personal computing devices. What AI native hardware should do may not be to replace mobile phones, but to fill in the gaps in the ecosystem built around mobile phones.

For example, AI friend, which positions itself as an "electronic friend", does not show any AI functions in the promotional video. It just chats with users like friends about the movies playing on the phone and the scenery seen while hiking. Friend has never been intended to replace the phone, but has become an extension of mobile phone AI interaction at a relatively low price. In specific scenarios such as driving, running, and cooking, these AI devices are sometimes better than mobile phones. Lei Technology will keep a close eye on AI Friend, the AI ​​hardware, and will purchase and send first-hand reviews as soon as possible. Please stay tuned.

I think the ideal state of AI hardware is a product that is closely connected with other devices and leverages their respective strengths.

In the first half of 2024, the technology circle is surging.

Big models are being put into practice at an accelerated pace, with AI applications emerging in an endless stream, including AI mobile phones, AI PCs, AI home appliances, AI search, and AI e-commerce.

Vision Pro is now available in China, setting off a new wave of XR spatial computing;

HarmonyOS NEXT is officially released, and the mobile OS ecosystem has changed;

Automobiles have fully entered the "second half", and intelligence has become a top priority;

Competition in e-commerce is increasingly fierce, with low prices and even lower services;

The wave of going overseas is surging, and Chinese brands are embarking on the journey of globalization;

……

In the hottest month of July, Lei Technology's mid-year review is launched, summarizing the brands, technologies and products worth recording in the first half of 2024 in the technology industry, recording the past and looking forward to the future. Please pay attention.