• dustyData@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Yeah, I don’t doubt there were people who were really hyped out of their minds for this. But it’s my impression they were a minority. Almost all press around the device was extremely skeptical, and only a few were cautiously excited. I follow a lot of tech circles in social media and there wasn’t really a buzz about the pin. But, I think the proof is in the pudding. 10,000 sales is not exactly evidence of an extremely popular device. Even if the end result was bad, if there was a lot of hype, one would expect higher sales. After all we knew the price and conditions of sales (subscription) for a long time before release.

    • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      I don’t think that’s the pudding. The device had a high bar for entry with its price and was a very novel tech device. Most people interested in the concept likely were reticent to pre-order and wanted to wait for early adopter reports to surface. I maintain that there is a viable market and sufficient enthusiasm for the technology / concept that the company promised, but obviously not the one they delivered.

      • dustyData@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I mean, sure. Several startups are making bank selling AI, not to individuals, but to companies. There is no money to be made long term on mediocre chatbots. No matter in what form factor they come, and unfortunately, this and the rabbit thing poisoned the market and clearly marked anything AI as a scam on buyer’s minds.

        Edit: also, if the hype were really that high for such a device, then the rabbit should’ve sold a lot more units, since it was the budget version of the humane pin. But that wasn’t the case either. And now everyone knows both companies were just pump and dump scams.

        • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works
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          5 months ago

          Rabbit r1 garnered $10million in pre-order sales. How many should it have sold to impress you? The first 5 batches I think sold out within a day or days, production of the units appeared to be the bottleneck until people actually got a hold of them and reported on how awful they were.

          You just seem bent on this whole issue. Is there a point you want to make? Or are you just upset about AI stuff in general?