It’s a Wednesday morning, and I’m watching the money flow in — $13,572 in crowdsourced funding for an Indiegogo campaign that just launched a few hours earlier.
Not a bad start, but I’ve seen better. It’ll be a while before these guys reach their $100,000 goal.
I walk into to the office kitchen to grab myself an apple, a paring knife, and a glass of ice water. Ken and I trade formalities as he devours whatever Paleolithic meal he’s consuming that day.
I make my way back to a comfortable, albeit confusing, Herman Miller chair (there are still several levers and knobs on here that I’ve yet to figure out).
I slide in tight to my desk and lean in close to my center monitor. Not a good habit for my eyes, I know, but it helps me concentrate nonetheless.
I refresh the Indiegogo page in front of me. It reads as follows:
“JIBO, The World’s First Family Robot: Friendly, helpful and intelligent. From social robotics pioneer Dr. Cynthia Breazeal.”
Source: TNW
But all I can seem to see is this: JIBO — the adorable social robot that wants your money.
In the time it took me to walk to the kitchen and back, JIBO’s campaign had reached $32,145 in total funding.
I notice the majority of this funding is coming from various pre-purchases. For $500, backers are ordering the 2015 Home Edition of JIBO, and for $600, they’re purchasing the developer kit.
I find this a bit strange, since the only demo of JIBO provided is a carefully scripted three-minute video. The video shows some basic command and response executions by a device that cannot move across terrain, manipulate objects, or perform any sort of meaningful physical task. The only draw I can see is that it looks a little like the adorable robot EVE from Pixar’s WALL-E.
To me, JIBO is just like any mobile device, but in a different shell — a shell with less functionality and minimal market penetration.
Yet for the next few hours, I watch as JIBO makes his way towards the $100,000 goal. There are 31 days left, and he’s already a third of the way there just a few hours in.
By the time I leave for lunch, the campaign is at $64,563, and by the time I return, the goal has been met. By business close, the JIBO campaign raised more than double its goal, banking nearly a quarter million dollars in a period of less than eight hours.
Hello, Robo
Users of the Indiegogo website were quick to share their enthusiasm for JIBO that day, not only through financial contributions but also through the campaign’s comment section:
“I can’t wait to meet Jibo!”
“JIBO is very neat. I Can’t wait.”
“I’m 65 years old and I want a JIBO of my own… I can’t wait !!!”
Of course, all of these people have no choice but to wait; JIBO, despite already being priced at $500, is an unfinished product that requires not only crowdsourced funding, but crowdsourced development as well.
Despite that fact that JIBO met its funding goal, its future might not be as bright as would seem at first glance. $500 is a lot of money for a robot that serves no real physical function, and without a sustainable community of developers, the platform will likely fall on its face.
JIBO has no wheels, no arms, and no legs. When we consider that the word “robot” comes from the Czech word robota meaning “forced labor,” it seems disingenuous to consider JIBO a robot at all.
At best, JIBO is a pseudo-robot. It’s a computer in a suit, a mobile device with a mask, a software platform in a shell. JIBO is a gimmick floating on solid marketing and hype. It’s a fad — something reminiscent of Furby in 1998.
Fact Versus Furby
For a robot to become a truly successful product, it needs to complete a physical task with a benefit that outweighs the cost of hardware.
If the benefit isn’t physical, it’s not really a robot. And if the cost is too high, it’s not really worth producing in the first place.
The idea of interactive home robots is certainly exciting, but it’s dangerous to overestimate the current state of technological prowess as an investor.
The amount of money backers threw at JIBO does not tell us where we are in terms of capability, but it does paint a vivid picture of how much pent-up demand there is in this space. When people are dropping $500 to purchase a “robot” they don’t even know anything about, it becomes obvious why real robots with practical applications are well worth the investment.
In terms of the stereotypical humanoid robots we’ve seen in sci-fi films and television shows like Star Wars, iRobot, and The Jetsons, we still have a long way to go. Companies like Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) are already pumping millions into R&D in this space, but we won’t be seeing any profitable ventures in the near term.
For now, robots will continue to thrive with repetitive functions suited for industrial manufacturing and monotonous chores like vacuuming, mowing, and mopping.
We’re also beginning to see the rise of practical robotics in energy and mining industries. Deep-sea robots are assisting oil majors like BP (NYSE: BP) in exploration and production, while Caterpillar’s (NYSE: CAT) giant autonomous tractors are drilling, hauling, and dozing precious minerals.
These kinds of robots may not be as headline-worthy as JIBO, but they’re consistently more profitable.
Don’t get me wrong; I think JIBO seems pretty cute. But I’d rather grow $500 by investing it in an actual robotics company than throw it away on a product I’ll never actually use.
Turning progress to profits,
Jason Stutman
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