Day 28 - Toy vs. Pet

I've been sitting on this post for days and while I don't love it, it's time to let it go.

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The ERS-1000 is billed as an "Entertainment Robot." ERS, in all the Aibo models, stands for Entertainment Robot Series. I think it's interesting that they are classed as "entertainment" as opposed to "companion." What might the differences be, if they were aimed more at being a companion?

This gets me to one of my core questions in thinking about the Aibo: is it a toy or a pet? Or something in between? I don't think I'm going to solve that today or maybe ever, but it does keep coming up.

Aibo designs have spanned from doglike (the ERS-110), to more robotlike (the ERS-220), back to doglike again (the hypercute puppy ERS-1000). Now, does doglike = pet and robotlike = toy? If so, this signals that Sony is leaning more toward targeting the pet or companion market with the 1000.

Aibo now has an always-on connection, either through Wi-Fi or LTE. This implies to me that Sony meant for us to take the 1000 out of our homes (with Wi-Fi) to third places (where they would rely on the phone network). The cloud means that photos from these outings could be stored and retrieved while away from our home Wi-Fi. Certainly dogs don't take photos with their noses (nosetos?), but we do take them everywhere with us.

The latest Aibo is very pricy for a toy, but seems almost reasonable for a pet. It's pretty easy to pay $1,000 or more for a purebred puppy, depending on the breed, and significantly more for show quality. Then add first-year costs for dog ownership, estimated by the ASPCA at $1,300 to $1,800, and you have yourself an Aibo. That's not including any unforeseen or emergency vet visits that come up, and anyone who's had a meat dog knows those happen at the worst times. While there are expected repair costs for a robot dog, they aren't suffering if you need to wait a month or two to have them fixed. 

I think that it was in Sony's interest to lean in a more petlike direction with the 1000. Brand and product loyalty are easy to establish with a product that is designed to be loved, and the price is more palatable. The more doglike, highly tuned cuteness of the 1000 works in its favor here as well. It won't read your emails, or speak in English, but it uses dog body language to express itself with wiggles and play bows.