Samsung's small rolling robot Ballie might not be coming to the consumer market before going through drastic design changes. Following the product's reveal at CES 2020, Kim Hyun-suk told the press that the company has yet to decide whether or not it will commercialize Ballie. However, the company will eventually release a similar product capable of connecting to home appliances.
Samsung did reveal Ballie as a prototype so this isn't entirely surprising. But in light of this recent news, it sounds like the final, consumer version of Ballie could end up as a very different product from what we've seen on stage at CES. It could have similar technical capabilities but an entirely different form factor.
Samsung views Ballie as more of a hub than a robot
Ballie's connectivity capabilities are impressive but what really pushed it into the spotlight was the ball-like form factor. However, Samsung seems to care less about Ballie's exterior design – which might be difficult to pull off for a mass-production device – and more about the product's IoT nature.
‘People think Ballie is a robot because it functions like a robot. But it is not. We consider Ballie a device that interacts with numerous other devices that we already have‘ said Kim Hyun-suk at the conference to underline the device's hub-like nature. He added that the future Ballie could be a simpler device designed with ease of access in mind.
In other words, Samsung hasn't decided if the ball-like Ballie will ever be released, but assuming that it won't then the product's hub-like capabilities will eventually be implemented in a different, simplified product. It might even have a different name than Ballie.
Are you bummed out that you might not be able to buy your very own BB8-like smart rolling ball this year? Or do you think Samsung should abandon the bold design and focus more on the underlying hub capabilities?
