It emerged recently that Humane was trying to sell itself for as much as $1 billion after its confuddling, expensive and ultimately pretty useless AI Pin flopped. A New York Times report that dropped on Thursday shed a little more light on the company’s sales figures and, like the wearable AI assistant itself, the details are not good.
By early April, around the time that many devastating reviews of the AI Pin were published, Humane is said to have received around 10,000 orders for the device. That’s a far cry from the 100,000 it was hoping to ship this year, and about 9,000 more than I thought it might get. It’s hard to think it picked up many more orders beyond those initial 10,000 after critics slaughtered the AI Pin.
At a price of $700 (plus a mandatory $24 per month for 4G service), that puts Humane’s initial revenue at a maximum of about $7.24 million, not accounting for canceled orders. And yet Humane wants a buyer for north of $1 billion after taking a swing and missing so hard it practically knocked out the umpire.
HP is reportedly one of the companies that Humane was in talks with over a potential sale, with discussions starting only a week or so after the reviews came out. Any buyer that does take the opportunity to snap up Humane’s business and tech might be picking up somewhat of a poisoned chalice. Not least because the company this week urged its marks customers to stop using the AI Pin’s charging case over a possible “fire safety risk.”
