Things aren’t looking very bright for Humane.
The company’s only product, Humane AI Pin, is being returned en masse, with returns actually outpacing sales in the past couple of months.
This is according to The Verge, who spoke to people with knowledge of the subject, and saw Humane’s internal sales data. According to the report, more AI Pins were returned than purchased between May and August. And as of today, only 7,000 to 8,000 units have not been returned.
The Humane AI Pin is an interesting product, a rectangular wearable gadget with speech recognition, AI smarts, a camera, and a tiny laser projector that can display a rudimentary “screen” onto your palm. Unfortunately, it was met with scathing reviews, exacerbated by issues with a charging case that turned out to be a fire hazard.
I’ve personally spent a few minutes with the Humane AI Pin and found it to be an incredibly cool gadget, though Humane’s ambitions of the AI Pin replacing the smartphone seemed unrealistic.
Judging by this latest sales/returns data, the novelty of the AI Pin wears off fast (and the $24/month subscription fee probably doesn’t help). Humane reportedly shipped a total of around 10,000 AI Pins so far, falling far behind its expectations to sell 100,000 units in the first year.
To make matters worse, Humane reportedly cannot refurbish returned items due to a technical limitation related to T-Mobile’s service, which effectively turns returned items into waste (and a total loss for the company).
When asked for comment, Humane said that The Verge’s report contained inaccuracies, without specifying what they are.
A Bloomberg report in May said that Humane was looking for a buyer, and an NYT report in June said HP was interested. Given how its only product currently in the market is doing, Humane better start looking harder.
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