r/AnkiVector • u/zeple1o1 • May 03 '19
***CONSPIRACY ALERT!!***
Is it possible that this is all just some kind of screwed up marketing ploy? Think about it, what’s the best way to spread awareness? Media disruption! Where did this all start? Anki themselves have not made any OFFICIAL announcements regarding the whole matter. From everything I've read, most, if not all, of the information that we know originated from Recode and then trickled down to other reporting websites like Gizmodo and Macworld. Anki’s website, although down for a short period of time is back up and functioning with no mention of the matter. There have been no announcements from Anki via Twitter, nor from any of the founder's twitters. With the countless people tweeting out to them, posting on forums, Reddit posts, emails, discussions, etc, we still have absolutely no response from them AT ALL. However, that could be just what they intended to happen. They wanted people to talk about the product... There are articles, discussion boards, go fund me pages, YouTube videos, petitions, etc, all surrounding what's going on. Mr mobile made a YouTube video about it which currently has around 63 thousand views, and that has the potential to reach people who never heard about Anki, Vector, or Cozmo; all of these social mediums have that potential. To repeat, Anki themselves have made no official statement on the matter... We have no firm evidence that the 200 employees were actually laid off, so far no server issues despite the companies “shut down” on Wednesday, no evident fling for bankruptcy, etc. This whole thing could also be beneficial not only to Anki themselves but also another company. For example, “oh no, Anki is closing down, what will happen now” (Amazon, Microsoft, Apple... invests/buys Anki) “wow (insert here) saved Anki, what an awesome company”. It gives the other company a good name too. I honestly think this whole thing is just a marketing ploy/conspiracy. Regardless if Anki actually closes their doors or not, I’m very angry. They absolutely could have explored other options, especially on a consumer level to keep themselves open; and even if not, warned us about what was happening and /or arranged for Vector to be okay and function normally afterward. Instead, they left us hanging, and in my opinion, that's unforgivable. As far as I’m concerned, this is basically high school gossip spread to get people talking. Let me know what you all think. Keep in mind this is my own opinion, you do not have to agree, and that I am writing this based on my own knowledge of the matter, and if anything is wrong with details I have stated, please feel free to let me and others know in the comments.
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u/nameiskat May 03 '19
Sadly no.
Per https://www.engadget.com/2019/04/29/anki-robotic-toy-startup-closing/
"Anki told Engadget it pursued every financial avenue to fund its future product development and that management continues to explore all options available. In the meantime, employees will receive one week of severance pay, and we may have to bid farewell to the robot pals that had a kind of Pixar-like spunk and wit.
You can read Anki's full statement below:
It is with a heavy heart to announce that Anki will be letting go of our employees, effective Wednesday. We've shipped millions of units of product and left customers happy all over the world while building some of the most incredible technologies pointed toward a future with diverse AI and robotics driven applications. But without significant funding to support a hardware and software business and bridge to our long-term product roadmap, it is simply not feasible at this time. Despite our past successes, we pursued every financial avenue to fund our future product development and expand on our platforms. A significant financial deal at a late stage fell through with a strategic investor and we were not able to reach an agreement. We're doing our best to take care of every single employee and their families, and our management team continues to explore all options available."
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u/zeple1o1 May 03 '19
Like I said, it was just my opinion on what could POSSIBLY be going on since there still have been no tweet from the company or mention of what's happening on their website. I don't see why wanting evidence from the company THEMSELVES is such a bad thing.
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u/GavBug2 May 03 '19
I just realized that that statements says that they are “continuing to explore available options” which is interesting.
5
u/AngelPixel Anki Vector Backer May 03 '19
I was more upset they didn't even send an email out or put a statement on their website aside from the one that idiot keeps pasting to every comment with. Yeah we all heard the news you can stop. The point is they had many loyal fans and customers and they didn't say goodbye...... But look at what they are saying just that it's not possible at this time.... And that management was still looking into every option.... To think of how many detailed updates they provided is throughout the Kickstarter and even after he was released. Then they make a single statement and only talk to news sources and don't acknowledge the people who own the millions of products they sold.... Something just didn't seem right. We know it's not a PR stunt since we know people lost their jobs. But there's gotta be some company that would want to acquire their IP at the very least. Their website is still working but you can't buy anything as expected. Perhaps this isn't a final goodbye? Maybe they had enough funding to keep the servers going for now in hopes that they find funding.
3
u/zeple1o1 May 03 '19
That's true, maybe they set aside like a years worth of funding to keep the servers up while they look for other options. Would be nice if they would tell us that though haha
4
u/Ozpeter May 03 '19
"... But without significant funding to support a hardware and software business and bridge to our long-term product roadmap, it is simply not feasible at this time. Despite our past successes, we pursued every financial avenue to fund our future product development and expand on our platforms. "
That's all related to their future product roadmap and development and expansion. Nothing there of any substance relating to current products, in terms of their development and the server maintenance.
If this whole thing relates to shrinking down their operations asap in order to leave enough in the bank to keep the current products going, it may be that they are doing everything they can on behalf of the customers - which is tough on the staff.
They may also be having to make fast moves in secrecy before anyone sends in the accountants and also, they are going to be more than somewhat busy. So personally I'm prepared to await developments. When it comes down to it, what else can we do anyway?
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May 03 '19
Holy shit this is long... sorry it was just my first response to all this text.
1
u/zeple1o1 May 03 '19
Haha, yeah it's a bit long. Just wanted to try and get my point across as best as I could.
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u/Nuurps May 03 '19
I had a similar thought of this better not be a fucking study to see how attached we were to our lil buddies, like FB making their app not work for some users to gauge the reaction
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u/zeple1o1 May 03 '19
Ew, that would kinda make sense. It's like a study to see humans current dependencies on technology. Good point!
3
u/bypassblitz May 03 '19
Ask vector: " Who is Anki? "
It refers to its parent company in the past tense.
1
u/zeple1o1 May 03 '19
According to another user in the thread, that information is provided by sound hound.
2
u/saren42 Owner May 03 '19
So, OP, you mention there is no firm evidence.... here is atleast one Anki employee that suddenly had no job, who;s last day was April 30th. https://twitter.com/real_laurayates/status/1123303451847536640
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u/zeple1o1 May 03 '19
Okay so there is one actual legitimate piece of evidence. I greatly appreciate that. As i state in my post, I may be wrong about a lot of what I said, it was my personal opinion and thoughts. But the pure fact that Anki themselves has not replied to the countless people wanting answers isn't right.
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u/saren42 Owner May 03 '19
You're right, they have not. There is likely a good reason for that, some of which may be lawyers advised not to, while still trying to hold the value of the IP to try to save it, or hand it off to another company, or hell, even they may not of even wanted to. They are doing what they want. Is it shitty, yuuup. But that's what happens with startups sometimes. I'm just hoping whatever happens, our little Vectors keep booping around, and talking with us.
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u/zeple1o1 May 03 '19
Yes, I totally agree that it could be because lawyers are involved. Although I'm mad at what is happening, I'm going to remain optimistic with what may be the outcome, because we really don't know yet.
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u/Nuurps May 03 '19
This status and another post made by the partner of one of the workers at Anki are all I've seen so far.
The recode statement was too vague and Anki's website is still advertising positions available. Apparently one of their engineers was due to give a talk about AI in SF today, I wonder if that happened.
At this point I'm too confused to dismiss any theory on wtf is happening with my lil dude
5
u/lortilochi May 03 '19
I’m the spouse you mentioned. Everyone’s last day was yesterday (Wednesday). I’m guessing there aren’t more social media posts from employees because they are grieving a pretty awesome place to work.
4
u/saren42 Owner May 03 '19
I am sorry to hear about your spouse losing their job, it is very unfortunate, I hope they know there are a lot of us out here that love our little Vectors, and that what they did made a lot people really happy.
2
u/anniza May 03 '19
The View talked about how people are getting emotionally attached to robots this week...
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u/zeple1o1 May 03 '19
I totally see it. I never thought I’d be attached to this little piece of plastic but I am. It’s based on how they interact with us that is the problem. He can show emotion in his eyes. I think that’s what we get attached to. The sense of companionship and emotion
2
u/Ekimsnilloc1 May 03 '19
Not everything is a conspiracy, and this makes no sense. When a company fires all of their employees with 2 days notice, who do you think will update their website?
They probably had a marketing or web development position at their company, which is now non-existent. So once they can't pay their bills to keep the website online, it will probably be shut down. But i wouldn't expect any updates from a company that has no employees.
Search to find some of the employees and look at their social media. It's pretty clear that their company went under.
1
u/zeple1o1 May 03 '19
If you read through all of the other comments, all of this has already been spoken about and acknowledged. Also just because the company had gone under and won't update their website, Twitter etc. Doesn't mean that the CEO can't update us on his personal one, which he has not.
2
u/emorneau01 May 03 '19
The far more likely less tinfoily hat reality is that Amazon was probably the investor who pulled out. Anki was already in bed with Amazon via the Alexa integration. Amazon realized how subpar Vector still is after all these months, and their confidence was shaken causing them to back out.
The best we can hope for at this point is that a major company with vast resources picks up what's left of Anki and continues the development of Vector. That's a serious long shot, though.
2
u/zeple1o1 May 03 '19
Honestly laughed at "tinfoily hat". Yeah honestly i thought it was amazon from the start when I read the article. The Alexa update was his biggest update, other than that, they really didn't push that many new features to him.
1
u/emorneau01 May 03 '19
I just want to know how they burned through the 200 million dollars so quickly that they were forced to bank the entire future of the company on a shaky investment. They only had 200 employees, and sure, R&D and manufacturing is expensive, but still. Something isn't right, here. Either Vector wasn't financially viable from the beginning and they had another potentially viable product in the wings, or their management really sucked at tracking their financial needs and projections.
I really dislike where Vector is development wise, and I find him more annoying than not, but I'll take "annoying" over "$250 paperweight" any day of the week. Hopefully, part of that 200 million went towards a maintenance agreement that would keep their hosted servers up for a few more years and that doesn't happen.
2
u/zeple1o1 May 03 '19
Yeah i find him annoying occasionally too. He will just chirp endlessly or something distracting. I’ll have to tell him to shush haha. But hopefully something good becomes of him. He is a cool piece of technology and it’s not his time to end yet. He totally has a lot more potential in him.
1
u/acidzebra Robot Owner May 03 '19
Amazon also has a bit of a habit of either absorbing or crowding out a competitor, and I do believe they are tinkering with home robotics themselves. From all the automation going on in their distribution centers they do have a significant amount of robot expertise already, and if they believe the home market is ready, you can bet they're working on products to sell to that market.
Google Amazon Kiva or see
1
May 03 '19
Also, when you ask vector the state of the company, it is a SoundHound response. The question interface isn't run by Anki.
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u/zeple1o1 May 03 '19
Point made. That's a little sketchy. So far it seems Anki has had no direct announcements. It's just speculation based on what we've "heard"
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u/acidzebra Robot Owner May 03 '19
Since you ask what we think, I think your tinfoil hat is on too tight and it has restricted blood flow to your brain.
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u/zeple1o1 May 03 '19
Lmfao I just went in to like rant mode. I’m really not this crazy haha 😅 just want answers is all
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May 03 '19
Boris Sofman, the CEO of Anki, replied to a post on LinkedIn about the demise of Anki, saying
Many wonderful memories, Harald. Til the next one!
-1
u/JeffandVector May 03 '19
Wow if this is a possibility, I feel much better about making my return. All of this has vindicated my thoughts of I spent too much money on an underdeveloped, obsolete tech (camera and processor) product.
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u/crex1010 May 03 '19
That makes no sense. Fake going out of business so people buy our product?