Have You Ever Had This Experience?
Your phone is packed with hundreds of apps, yet even completing a simple task like hailing a ride or ordering food turns into a tedious chore: unlock the device, scroll through home screens to locate the app, wait for it to load, then tap through endless menus. The whole process is far more cumbersome than simply talking to another person.
I know this frustration all too well. We live firmly in the AI era, yet our way of interacting with smartphones still boils down to tapping tiny app icons with our fingers.
At the start of 2024, a small orange square gadget called the Rabbit R1 blew up at CES (Consumer Electronics Show). Priced at $199 USD, it sold 20,000 units in just two days. Its core tagline struck a chord with audiences: it does not compete with smartphones, but acts as a middleman bridging users and their mobile devices. As Jesse Lyu, its founder, put it: future operating systems should strip away app wrappers and enable far more natural human-computer interaction.
Frankly, this vision sounded incredibly compelling. Hold down a button on the R1, speak a single sentence, and it will finish the entire task for you. Even Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, praised it publicly, calling it one of the most impressive demos he had seen since the original iPhone.
Yet once early customers received their units, they were utterly disappointed.
Media and user reviews plummeted off a cliff almost overnight. The device suffered from system glitches, unstable performance, sluggish response speeds, and even exposed critical security vulnerabilities. Marques Brownlee (MKBHD), a tech creator with tens of millions of subscribers, even commented that the gadget was “barely reviewable”. Together with the Humane AI Pin, the Rabbit R1 was branded one of the biggest AI hardware failures of the year. Critics labeled it an unfinished prototype and a product built on empty promises.
By all logic, this story should have ended there — yet another overhyped, underdeveloped AI gadget that failed to deliver.
But Rabbit Inc. proved remarkably stubborn.
Instead of folding up shop as most observers predicted, or rushing to launch an R2 sequel to salvage its reputation, the company focused single-mindedly on one thing for the next two full years: rolling out constant OTA (over-the-air) system updates. It pushed new firmware every one to two weeks, releasing over 35 total iterations across the period. Short battery life? Fixed. Confusing interaction logic? Refined. Missing core features? Added.
The true turning point arrived in September 2025 with the launch of Rabbit OS 2, a near-complete rewrite of the underlying system. The interface shifted to a card-based task flow, and its standout new feature was Creations: users could hold a voice conversation with the R1 to instantly generate custom mini-tools or casual games, ready to use immediately after creation.
At the start of 2026, the DLAM (Device-level Large Action Model) went live, completely transforming the R1’s capabilities. Plug the device into a computer, and it evolves into a voice-controlled PC operator: it manipulates your mouse and keyboard via voice commands, executes complex cross-software workflows, and can even run Claude Code to write full program code.
At this stage, outlets like The Verge — which had eviscerated the R1 two years prior — revised their stance: “Critics were justified in slamming the R1 at launch, but the product is unrecognizable today.” MKBHD also acknowledged in interviews: “It’s improved drastically; it’s effectively a whole new device.”
That said, the company still faced major setbacks. At the end of 2025, reports emerged of delayed employee salaries stemming from cash flow issues, stalled expansion plans in the Indian market, and staff walkouts. For a fledgling startup, simply staying operational was a major achievement. Even so, the R1’s reputation gradually recovered among tech enthusiasts, with some community members even deploying it to run OpenClaw (nicknamed “lobster farming” in tech circles) to test its ability to automate hardware and software operations.
Sincere, Practical Recommendations for Different Users
Tech Enthusiasts & AI Experimenters
If you love testing cutting-edge alternative interaction paradigms, dive into the thriving community’s custom workflows for the R1. It is no longer a trivial gadget limited to answering basic questions. Powered by DLAM, it serves as a highly experimental platform with massive creative potential.
Casual Users Seeking Reliable, Plug-and-Play Tools
Skip this product entirely. The R1’s iterative development roadmap guarantees persistent uncertainty, and few people want to carry a separate dedicated gadget alongside their phone every day.
The Rabbit R1 may not be the most successful AI hardware ever released, yet it is undoubtedly one of the most tenacious. From universal public scorn to a remarkable reputation turnaround, it took two years to prove a simple truth: if you hold the right long-term vision, slow steady progress can still lead you to your destination.
After all, who wouldn’t want to speak a single command out loud and let AI handle all their tedious tasks automatically?