About a year back SoftBank unveiled its new emotion sensing robot called Pepper, over the year we have heard more about the robot’s features and capabilities and the most recent update from the company told us when it would go on sale. SoftBank is done with the initial run and it has turned out to be a hit because it didn’t take more than a minute for Pepper to be sold out in Japan as soon as it went on sale.
SoftBank’s initial run consisted of just 1,000 units which were made available for purchase in the market at 10 am on Saturday, June 10th. In just one minute all 1,000 units had been purchased by customers who paid as much as $1,600 per piece.
Pepper is not really meant to help out the user with physical tasks, instead it’s claimed to sense human emotions and respond accordingly. It’s programmed with software and applications that allow it to function as much more of a household companion for users.
This robot does require a data package for cloud-based data services as well as an insurance package which costs around $200 per month in Japan. SoftBank has inked deals to enable it to bring Pepper to more countries across the globe.
It certainly has plans to launch it in other markets but for now, only customers in Japan can get to experience the human emotion sensing features of the Pepper robot.
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