The Humane AI Pin has been in hot waters since its launch, posing minimal utility with the hefty price tag, and now we have sales numbers that reflect how the company is doing so far. Last year, Apple's former designer Imran Chaudhri and software manager Bethany Bongiorno launched their own product that focused on AI utilities. The device did not come with a display and instead offered projections on your hand for control and information output.
Humane AI Pin under hot waters as returns are now leaving sales behind, company spokesperson states the data is inaccurate
There is no doubt that the Humane AI Pin has done poorly since its debut, and there are various factors that could contribute to its downfall. For one, the pin was priced at a whopping $699, which means that you can get a brand-new iPhone in this bracket. With that hefty cost, users would expect practical use cases from the device, but the performance was sub-par and not optimized at all upon initial tests, and reviews have stated the same.
Humane is struggling to keep up with the declining sales of its AI Pin as there are now more returns than sales in the August to May time frame. According to information from The Verge, there are only 7,000 units out in the wild, with 10,000 units initially shipped. Humane has sold $9 million worth of AI Pins so far, and the company is now dealing with $1 million worth of returns, which is a challenging position for the company.
Due to the nature and design of the product, refurbishing the AI Pins is not an option, classifying the returned units as an incurred cost for the company. It was recently reported that the Charge Case for the Humane AI Pin had problems as well, posing a fire risk to the consumers. To be fair, it only added fuel to the fire as far as its position in the industry is concerned. This is due to the fact that the product has already faced backlash from the industry, and adding a hazardous element to the mix would only make the product less desirable. The company also did not provide a free alternative to the faulty chargers and instead offered two months of free subscription.
Initially, prominent YouTuber MKBHD brought Humane's sub-par performance to the limelight, and it has since not been able to sell the product at the pace that it had initially thought it would. The company raised over $200 million initially from investors with a plan to sell at least 100,000 units of the Humane AI Pin in the first year of business, but it seems that the recent sales and returns are not showing the same results.
A Humane spokesperson told The Verge that it had financial "inaccuracies" in the data it had obtained, but it failed to provide an updated list of numbers. While Humane is adamant about providing solutions for contextual computing, it remains to be seen how it will tackle the returns and boost sales.
