Humane's AIPin Struggles with Low Sales, Returns and Financial Woes

TapTechNews August 8th news, in April this year, Humane, founded by former Apple employees, launched its first screenless wearable AI device, AiPin, with a price of 699 US dollars (TapTechNews note: currently about 5001 Chinese yuan), and an additional monthly subscription fee of 24 US dollars (currently about 172 Chinese yuan). Foreign media TheVerge today quoted internal sales data as saying that from May to August this year, the number of AIPin returns exceeded the new sales volume.

A source with direct knowledge of the sales and return volume data said that by June this year, approximately 8000 AiPins had not been returned; as of today, the number of devices still in the hands of customers is approximately 7000.

Data shows that the total sales of Humane's AIPin and accessories just exceeded 9 million US dollars (currently about 64.388 million Chinese yuan). The total number of AiPins sold is approximately 10000, which is only 10% of Humane's goal to ship 100000 units by April 2025.

These previously undisclosed data paint a clearer picture of the dilemma Humane is in. The report said that the sales of AIPin are so low, far less than the more than 200 million US dollars (currently about 1.431 billion Chinese yuan) that Humane has raised from well-known Silicon Valley executives such as OpenAI CEO Altman and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff.

Humane's spokesperson Zoz Cuccias said that TheVerge's report has 'inaccuracies', including financial data. When asked about the specific situation of these inaccuracies, Cuccias said 'We have no other information to provide because we do not comment on financial data and will leave it to our legal advisors to handle.'

A source confirmed that once an AiPin is returned, the company cannot refurbish it, and it also means that the AiPin will become 'electronic waste', and Humane has no chance to recover revenue by reselling it again.