Things aren’t looking too bright for Humane.
The company’s only product, the Humane AI Pin, has been subject to a large number of returns, with returns outnumbering sales over the past few months.
That’s according to The Verge, which spoke with people familiar with the matter and saw Humane’s internal sales data. The report said that between May and August, more AI Pins were returned than were purchased. And as of today, only 7,000 to 8,000 have remained unreturned.
The Humane AI Pin is an interesting product, a rectangular wearable gadget with voice recognition, AI capabilities, a camera, and a small laser projector that can display a basic “screen” on the palm of your hand. Unfortunately, the product has received harsh reviews, exacerbated by issues with its charging case that turned out to be a fire hazard.
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A humanitarian consideration for AI Pin owners: Do not use the charging case, it may catch fire
I personally spent a few minutes using the Humane AI Pin and thought it was an incredibly cool gadget, although Humane’s ambitions for the AI Pin to replace your smartphone seemed unrealistic.
Judging by this latest sales/return data, the novelty of the AI Pin will soon wear off (and the $24/month subscription fee probably doesn’t help either): Humane has reportedly shipped about 10,000 AI Pins in total so far, far short of expectations of selling 100,000 in the first year.
To make matters worse, Humain says it is unable to refurbish the returned products due to technical limitations related to T-Mobile’s service, meaning the returned items essentially become waste (and a total loss for the company).
Reached for comment, Humane said there were inaccuracies in The Verge’s report but did not specify what they were.
Bloomberg reported in May that Humane was searching for a buyer, and The New York Times reported in June that HP had expressed interest. Given the sales of the only product currently on the market, Humane had better start looking harder.
