Market is There for Entertainment Robots. Price, Functionality are Key.
Will entertainment robots become a new class of high margin consumer electronics or will they be relegated to the status of expensive novelties?
Somewhere in the intersection between toys and domestic service robots lies the realm of entertainment robots, or for the more seriously minded, companion or personal robots. These are robotic products, typically humanoid or animal in form, which cost between $1,000 and $10,000, and offer a number of interactive features designed to entertain, educate and service humans. Currently, the products that do exist, and there are but few of them, suffer from prices to high, and functionality too low, to sell to anyone but well heeled technofiles. But if the laws of consumer electronics can be applied to this class of product, and there is no reason why they cannot, prices will be driven down and functionality driven up with each new release. Market acceptance then becomes a matter of the right functionality, and consumer willingness to have this functionality delivered by a robot.
A recent New York Times News Service article (see Home Companions Who Never Call In Sick ) describes four days of human-robot interaction with a robot named Nuvo, a human helpmate and home companion released by Tokyo based, ZMP, Inc. At $6,000 and limited functionality, little Nuvo is little more than an expensive novelty. The author, however, who early in the article wonders if companion robots will be a world changing technology or simply an expensive fad, is soon taken by Nuvo. While Nuvo is referred to as “it” throughout the article, it is clear that the robot has been fully anthropomorphized after four days of human-robot bonding. This fact, taken together with other instances of robots being treated as something other than simple mechanical devices (people naming their Roombas serves as an example), bodes well for robotics companies who believe that entertainment robots will emerge as a new class of high margin consumer electronics. Consumers, it appears, would adopt these products. Developers then, must focus on four simple words – “functionality up, prices down”.
