He Rabbit R1 has been one of the pleasant surprises of CES 2024. The small device powered by artificial intelligence, which promises to use your favorite apps for you, has positioned itself as one of the most innovative and curious launches of the event. And it is already a bestseller, surprising even its creators.
As confirmed by the developers of the gadget, on its first day of availability it they sold 10,000 units of the Rabbit R1. This has far exceeded the expectations of the company founded and directed by Jesse Lyu, which aimed to market no more than 500 in the 24 hours following its announcement.
However, public interest in the Rabbit R1 has exploded, multiplying that original goal by 20. The company reported on your X account (Twitter) that the first batch of the device has been sold out due to the shocking demand. Of course, reservations for the second batch are now open, but buyers will have to wait a little longer to receive it.
Those who have managed to acquire the Rabbit R1 within the first batch of 10,000 devices, They will start receiving it in March. While those who have reserved it later—or do so now—will have their unit starting in April or May, the startup indicated.
What is the Rabbit R1 and why is it a sales rage?
The Rabbit R1 is a pocket-sized device that leverages artificial intelligence to control your favorite apps. It is a complement to the mobile phone, rather than a replacement, and has generated a lot of appeal due to its design and features. The gadget has a 2.88-inch touch screen, a camera, speakers, an analog wheel to move through the graphical interface and a button to activate the microphone – as if it were a walkie-talkie – and use voice commands.
Under the hood there is nothing too extraordinary. It comes with a 2.3 GHz MediaTek chip, 128 GB of storage and 4 GB of RAM. The Rabbit R1 does not run apps natively, but relies on AI through Rabbit OSa customized operating system through a natural language interface.
To take advantage of its capabilities, users must connect your favorite apps to the Rabbit R1 through a web interface. Once they log in, the gadget will take care of the rest. In the presentation demo, Jesse Lyu showed how the device works once linked to a Spotify account. You can ask the AI to play music or provide related contextual information, without losing conventional controls via the touch screen.
A friendlier proposal to create a pocket AI
The objective that Rabbit pursues with the R1 is that users can teach the artificial intelligence new tasks, or how they want it to interact with certain platforms or programs. Without a doubt, a very innovative proposal that takes a different—and friendlier—approach than other projects to create a pocket AI like Humane’s AI Pin.
Another crucial point to understand the initial furor over the Rabbit R1 is its price. The device costs only 199 dollars, does not require subscriptions and allows you to connect with multiple apps and services. In addition, its developers claim to have a very strict privacy policy.
Not only does it prevent them from having access to the users’ login credentials, but it also advocates responsible use of hardware. That’s why the camera is physically locked when not in use, the microphone can only be activated via a physical button, and all input methods are disabled when the Rabbit R1 is resting on its screen.