Ming-Chi Kuo has weighed in on OpenAI’s future hardware. The analyst wrote a long post on X about the hardware he expects to see out of the new partnership between OpenAI and Jony Ive:
My industry research indicates the following regarding the new AI hardware device from Jony Ive’s collaboration with OpenAI:
- Mass production is expected to start in 2027.
Assembly and shipping will occur outside China to reduce geopolitical risks, with Vietnam currently the likely assembly location.
The current prototype is slightly larger than the AI Pin, with a form factor as compact and elegant as an iPod Shuffle. The design and specifications may change before mass production.
One of the intended use cases is wearing the device around the neck.
It will have cameras and microphones for environmental detection, with no display functionality.
It is expected to connect to smartphones and PCs, utilizing their computing and display capabilities.
Just as a reminder, this is what that original iPod shuffle looked like when worn:
It was exciting to cover the breaking news live on Connected yesterday, but the truth is that Ive and company have a huge challenge ahead of them.
Ive’s previous hits — the iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch — all came to market later than products by other companies, and were all better than existing products. It was easy to see why the iPhone was better than other smartphones, or what made the iPad special. Even though the iPod and Apple Watch were slower out of the gate, they were impressive alternates to what already existed.
Today’s world is far different. No one has shipped an AI product worth buying, and unlike computers and MP3 players and smart phones and tablets and smart watches, the market hasn’t said this is a category that deserves to exist.
To be clear, the presumed failure of the Rabbit R1 and outright failure Humane AI Pin does not mean that there’s no room in the market for an AI-powered device. However, people really like their phones, and creating a product that will compete with the smartphone is a hill no one has successfully climbed to date.
If OpenAI’s future product is meant to work with the iPhone and Android phones, then the company is opening a whole other set of worms, from the integration itself to the fact that most people will still prefer to simply pull their phone out of their pockets for basically any task.
I’m still excited to see what Jony Ive and his team are working on, but just because he’s involved doesn’t mean that the product we will eventually see will be a winner. Joe Rossignol said it well:
It remains to be seen if the device will be a success, or if it will go the way of the AI Pin and other attempts at going beyond the smartphone. OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman is certainly confident, as he has tested the device at home and believes it will be “the coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen.” Quite the claim.