Anki, known for its Overdrive iPhone-controlled race cars and Cozmo robot, is launching a third product called Vector. It's like Cozmo's older brother — capable of running on its own without a smartphone and able to find its own way to a charger.
Why it matters: Anki has bigger ambitions than most people realize, but believes the key to building Rosie from "The Jetsons" is to start small and get better over time.
"At a high level, our goal is to figure out how to get robotics into people’s homes," Anki president Hanns Tappeiner told Axios. So far Anki has sold 1.5 million of its first two products, including several hundred thousand Cozmos.
The details: Vector will sell for $249 and go on sale Oct. 12, with a Kickstarter pre-sale. It's powered by a Qualcomm quad-core processor, has about twice as many parts as Cozmo (nearly 700 vs 340) and operates independently over a Wi-Fi connection. Like Cozmo, it can recognize people's faces and enjoys play. This time around, the toy can also respond to both speech and touch.
Vector's debut comes as the makers of some higher-priced home robots have been forced to shut down.
Tappeiner is hopeful that at a lower price, Vector will avoid that fate. As for its use, Tappeiner thinks it is more like a digital pet for the whole family than a kid's toy, which was Cozmo's raison d'etre.
How it works: I was one of the first people outside the company to see a prototype Vector in action and have also had a chance to play more extensively with Cozmo.
What's next: Tappeiner said Anki's goal is to launch products every 2-4 years, each time moving the company closer to its longer-term goal of a truly useful home robot.
Apple briefly topped $1 trillion in market cap, becoming the first U.S. company to do so. In and of itself, it's an arbitrary and not terribly meaningful milestone. But Apple's size really does matter.
The bottom line: A trillion dollars in market cap means Apple has both the cash and stock to buy anything it wants. That will be very important if the company decides to venture further into areas like self-driving cars or video content. (This NYT interactive graphic puts $1 trillion in perspective, showing all the things that amount would buy.)
History lesson: Apple was close to bankruptcy back in the late 1990s, before Steve Jobs' return to the company. In the two decades since, Apple has had a series of consecutive hits that allowed it to grow, step by step, into the tech giant it is today. Here are the three most important:
For more on Apple's transformation from near insolvency to $1 trillion in market value, the New York Times' Jack Nicas has a great recap here.
What they're saying:
What's next: The big question now is what the next trillion dollar company will be, with most eyes on Amazon. As for Apple's future, the question now is whether Apple can use services, cars or another breakthrough to keep the growth going.
Apple on Thursday became the first-ever U.S. company to have its market cap hit $1 trillion, when shares briefly touched $207.05. It’s a largely symbolic milestone, but also a reminder that between its giant market cap and massive cash holdings, Apple could buy almost anything it wants.
The bottom line: A billion dollars isn't cool. You know what's cool? A trillion dollars.
