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Hardware is hard to paraphrase a famous saying. First-generation products from new startups are notoriously slow, no matter how much money and enthusiasm you’ve managed to raise. Given all this, it’s possible that very few people will be surprised by the arrival of Heumann ai pin Has been pushed back slightly from March to “mid-April” a new video From Sam Schaefer, head of media for the Bay Area startup.
In a Sorkin-style walk-and-talk, he explains that the first units “will start leaving the factory at the end of March.” If Humane sticks to that deadline, “priority access” customers will begin receiving units sometime in mid-April. Meanwhile, the remaining pre-orders should arrive “soon.”
Humane garnered a fair share of tech buzz long before its first product was announced, courtesy of its founders’ time at Apple and some appropriately mysterious prelaunch videos. Ai Pin was finally unveiled at an event in San Francisco back in early novemberWhere we were able to spend a little controlled hands-on time with the wearable.
The device is the first major example of what is likely to be a growing trend in the consumer hardware world, as more startups look to harness the white-hot world of generic AI for new form factors. Humane is pitching its product as the next step into a niche that’s been stuck in the smartphone form factor for more than a decade.
Image Credit: Kind
Of course, this will almost certainly also be the year of the “AI smartphone” – that is, handsets that take advantage of the GPT model of platforms from companies like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft to bring new ways to interact with consumer devices. Meanwhile, Upstart Rabbit It generated buzz at CES last month for its unique take on a generic AI-first consumer device.
For its part, Heumann has a lot to offer on this launch. The company has raised about $230 million so far, including last year’s $100 million Series C. There’s a lot to be said for delaying a product until it’s ready for the consumer. Although early adopters are – to some extent – familiar with first-generation bugs, such patience always has a limit. At the very least, this kind of product will do what it’s supposed to do most of the time.
During CES the company announced that it… fired from job 10 employees, which is 10% of its total workforce. That’s not a huge number for a startup of that size, but it’s absolutely remarkable when it happens to a well-funded company at a time when it needs to convince consumers and investors alike.
The AI Pin is currently available for preorder at $699. Those who do so before March 31 will receive three months of the device’s $24/month subscription service for free.
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