Rabbit RI AI device sells out of second round of 10,000 units with third batch up for pre-order now

AI start-up Rabbit is having startling early success with its new Rabbit R1 AI hardware-based assistant. The device made a splash following its unveiling at CES earlier in the week and the initial batch of 10,000 units sold out on day one. The second batch of 10,000 units sold out almost immediately with the third batch now up for pre-order. The company posted on X/Twitter that sales have exceeded all expectations after originally having set a modest launch day sales goal of just 500 units. 

The Rabbit R1 is an inexpensive AI digital assistant most similar to the recently launched Humane Ai Pin. However, unlike the Ai Pin, which starts at $699, the Rabbit R1 is much more affordably priced at just $199. Rabbit co-designed the device with Swedish company Teenage Engineering, and features many of its trademark funky design elements. It is powered by a 2.3GHz MediaTek Helio P35 SoC paired to 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB of onboard storage, and centers on a small 2.88-inch touchscreen.

That said, the Rabbit R1 doesn’t aim to do much processing on-device other than natural language recognition. The device is powered by what Rabbit calls a Large Action Model (LAM) that draws from each of the services in order to action a users’ request. The heavy lifting has been cleverly “out-sourced” via third-party app and web-app APIs (including gen AI services like ChatGPT) that the user links to their Rabbit R1 through the Rabbit Hole web portal. Connectivity can be achieved through Wi-Fi or via a cellular connection as the device integrates a SIM card slot.