Anki, creator of cute robot companions, has gone bust. Why didn’t the world embrace its charming creations?
Last week, Anki, creator of adorable robots that are part toy, part virtual assistant and part pet, went out of business. “It is with a heavy heart to inform you that Anki has ceased product development and we are no longer manufacturing robots,” the company said in a statement, which promised to help owners keep enjoying their little mechanical pals for as long as possible.went out of business
So what went wrong? Why did Anki – a company that had attracted a huge amount of funding and interest in its earlier days – find itself so strapped for cash that it had to pull the plug? Why aren’t we welcoming little bots into our lives?
Vector’s expressions were designed by a professional character artist (Image credit: Anki)
Robot vacuum cleaners are one thing – we might feel a little affection towards them, but they’re very utilitarian. When it comes to robots for fun and companionship, we’re much more hesitant.
One of the simplest explanations is cost: robots of any sort don’t come cheap, and that’s a big problem if your machine is seen as a toy with a limited shelf-life. Why pay over $100 for something that’ll be gathering dust on a shelf in a few months’ time.
Mekamon, by Reach Robotics, is an augmented reality battle-bot that retails for a cool $250/£250 (about AU$350). Today it can be found strutting around Apple stores, demonstrating the iPhone’s augmented reality chops, but getting the first units off the production line was a long, hard, expensive process. Mekamon
After receiving a small dose of startup funding, the young company’s founders and one employee spent six months in constant crunch mode, working for 18 hours a day in San Diego and barely seeing the sun.
Reach Robotics, creator of Mekamon, has committed to supporting all previous versions of its robot so they don’t become obsolete (Image credit: Reach Robotics)
“I was trying to go surfing and I went once, in the end,” chief operating officer John Rees told TechRadar when we visited the company last year. “San Diego’s a cracking spot for that, and I managed to get there once. That’s life as a startup, though.
