It seems that ByteDance’s new AI hardware Ola Friend headset is not as optimistic as expected.
On October 17, Ola Friend headphones were officially launched for sale. Compared with the excitement at the time of release, the sales this time were quiet.
“Spend 1,199 yuan to buy a Xiaoai classmate version of bean bag? It’s better to continue using ChatGPT.”
After trying out the latest AI headset launched by ByteDance, Zhang Ying, as a loyal user of Doubao, has a positive impression of Ola Friend.
After experiencing the novelty of being able to directly wake up Beanbao for conversation by simply touching the earphones with a finger on the lock screen, Zhang Ying discovered that this earphone with AI function as its selling point cannot support simultaneous sound like iFlytek's AI earphones. For interpretation, the large bean bag model provided is not as smooth as the ChatGPT experience in English conversation.
In addition to being able to talk to Doubao more conveniently, Zhang Ying has not experienced any more refreshing functions.
An insider in the beanbag-related business line also told Handset Tech that although Ola Friend headphones are frequently used for business testing, “even internally, few people are ready to buy them. After all, the price is too high and the current functions are limited.” .
However, even if the market response is not high after its launch, this Doubao AI headset, which has recently caused a carnival among Doubao users, is another attempt by Zhang Yiming in the hardware field.
In fact, Zhang Yiming's attempts at hardware can be described as persistent. He has tried mobile phones, desk lamps, and even head-mounted displays, but failed repeatedly.
Even so, Zhang Yiming never gave up on hardware.
In September this year, after completing the acquisition of the open-back headphone brand Oladance, the bean bag AI headset Ola Friend was launched in a flash, undoubtedly carrying Zhang Yiming’s unfinished hardware dream.
However, there are always risks in trying.
After trying it for two days, Zhang Ying discovered that the voice wake-up function of Ola Friend headphones would suddenly fail. Even if Doubao was repeatedly awakened, the other end would just reply "Please reopen Doubao App." After restarting to no avail, Zhang Ying had no choice but to temporarily switch back to the original one. earphone.
It is foreseeable that whether it is optimistic and wrong, or pessimistic and right, ByteDance still has a difficult road to go before Ola Friend headphones can truly break the circle.
1. “Doubao AI headphones are popular, but I have no plans to buy them yet.”
As a Doubao user who was the first to notice ByteDance’s release of an AI headset, Zheng Zheng’s surprise after 2000 was being dissuaded by evaluation posts on social platforms.
At the beginning of the release of Ola Friend, for Founder, who is already used to using beanbao to solve most of the problems in life, and also uses beanbao as an AI friend, even if Ola Friend can only use beanbao more conveniently and quickly, it is attractive enough. It chops hands.
However, after searching for reviews of existing Doubao AI headphones, Founder found that the headset that he was once willing to spend 1,199 yuan on could actually only use some functions of Doubao . In addition to the main Bot, he created it by himself in Doubao. The "pinch" "agent" (the exclusive conversational ChatBot created by the user in the bean bag) cannot be called at present.
"I spent more money, but I can only enjoy some of the functions of the bean bag. The price/performance ratio is really low." Fang Zheng, who originally hoped to use Ola Friend to communicate with the robot he created all the time, decided not to buy it yet. Then "wait and see."
In addition to the complete features that cannot be unlocked with krypton gold, price is also one of the obstacles .
Compared with iFlytek, which sells for 1,000 to 1,300 yuan, it can realize simultaneous interpretation of AI conference headsets; and Xiaodu AI headsets, which are as low as 369 yuan and also focus on real-time calling of Wen Xin Yiyan's large models, are long overdue additions. ByteDance in the AI headset battlefield has not really impressed consumers in terms of price power.
"The functions currently displayed can be realized by using headphones and a mobile phone to open the bean bag. There is no need to buy another headset." Fang Zheng said.
After the evaluation, self-media blogger A Ying also said that it was "hard to explain". In his opinion, if you just "buy a headset just to chat with Doubao, the price/performance ratio is really too low."
Although after putting on the headphones, Beanbag can be awakened anytime and anywhere; if you need to recommend songs, it will automatically send songs from Soda Music (ByteDance Music APP) , but if you ask to play songs with specified copyrights, such as Jay Chou's songs, it cannot be played.
At the same time, if navigation is required, the route will be planned in real time, but this kind of accidental surprise moment is not what Aying needs.
"If someone shouts 'bean bag' next to me, it will respond." Aying said bluntly, "But this is my own private space, and I don't want to be disturbed by others."
In addition, the English chat function that Doubao AI headphones focus on is not very practical.
For loyal user Zhang Ying, who is now preparing for the IELTS exam, she calls Doubao frequently every day to look up words and practice speaking. However, compared to ChatGPT, which already has a rich overseas corpus, Doubao sometimes still produces "Chinese garbled responses". Situation, "If it is to practice speaking, I would rather pay for ChatGPT."
Just like the experience of Fang Zheng, Zhang Ying and others, since the pre-sale started on October 10, consumers have not been very enthusiastic about Ola Friend.
On October 17, Ola Friend officially went on sale. As of 12 noon on October 17, the sales volume of this headset at JD.com’s Ola Friend flagship store was 400+. In the Douyin live broadcast room, the number of people online has never exceeded 100.
On social platforms, there is not much discussion about Ola Friend. In many notes, netizens commented that "if it is used as an AI headset, it does not have enough functions" and "if it is just used as an open headset, there are more professional options."
2. Zhang Yiming’s persistent hardware dream
For Zhang Yiming, the hardware dream always seems to be elusive.
In 2019, one year after acquiring Smartisan, Bytedance suspended mobile phone research and development, and merged the New Stone Laboratory established by the original Smartisan technology team into the educational hardware team. The Dali smart work lamp equipped with an AI camera debuted at its peak.
However, unfortunately, this scenery did not last long.
In 2021, after the sales of Dali smart work lights exceeded one million, in 2022, Yang Kang, the head of ByteDance's education hardware business, was transferred to another position, leaving only the quality inspection and sales teams in the hardware team. According to "LatePost" news, ByteDance still has hundreds of thousands of desk lamps in stock for sale in 2022.
The educational desk lamp failed, and Zhang Yiming set his sights on the popular VR head-mounted display.
In 2021, ByteDance spent billions of yuan to win PICO, which was valued at only 3 billion yuan. According to media reports, ByteDance subsequently invested a large amount of resources into PICO, including technical experts, big IP cooperation, and full-platform traffic support.
However, PICO, which acquired and invested heavily, once again shattered Zhang Yiming's hardware dream. According to media estimates, after two years of investment of tens of billions of yuan, the sales of the highly anticipated PICO 4 were only 300,000 units, and the overall daily activity was less than 100,000. In the end, the PICO team also experienced layoffs and business line contraction.
Now, Zhang Yiming, who is obsessed with hardware, is once again betting on AI headphones.
Unlike heavy headsets, lighter and more portable headphones are considered by the industry to be one of the forms closer to wearable devices.
According to Luotu Technology data, in August 2024, AI headset sales increased by 763.3% compared with the same period last year, and sales increased by 1447.2%.
Taking the open-back headphone newcomer Cleer as an example, founder Wu Haiquan revealed that Cleer arc II sound arc has not only promoted its AI function, but also has a sales target of 700 million to 800 million yuan in 2023.
The world's first open AI headset launched in April this year was also launched in Dong Yuhui's live broadcast room. The unit price was 1,399 yuan, and 2,600 orders were sold in 6 minutes.
More importantly, in the eyes of many people in the industry, the launch of AI headphones is Zhang Yiming and ByteDance exploring more possibilities of combining AI technology with hardware. If successful, ByteDance may be one step ahead of other peers in the field of AI applications.
But whether Ola Friend can ultimately assume this important task is still unknown at present.
After all, iFlytek’s AI headphones already occupy an absolute market position in the market. What's more, even with the support of Doubao, Ola Friend's current application scenarios are limited, and it is not yet known whether it is extremely competitive.
In addition, with the rapid development of the AI hardware market, no one can guarantee whether new competitors will enter the AI headset field. This is also a potential threat to Ola Friend.
In the eyes of many consumers, Cleer, launched in April this year, is so specific in voice interaction that just shouting "eggplant" can trigger the camera function.
In contrast, the Bytedance AI headset Ola Friend, which is expensive and currently has poor functions, seems to be more like a limited internal test product for bean bag users at this stage, and has not yet really mobilized consumer sentiment.
3. The market still expects
Of course, not all voices are negative about Ola Friend headphones. The market also has a voice of approval for this new product of ByteDance.
Some dealers are optimistic about Ola Friend. In their view, with the blessing of bean bags, it is likely to be a product with great potential. .
“Although ByteDance’s AI headphones are priced at 1,199 yuan, the competing products are actually open-back headphones Shaoyin and rookie Cleer.”
Wei Wei, a distributor of Ola Friend headphones, said that in the open headphone market, compared with predecessors such as Shaoyin 810, 710, 910, Cleer, and Beyerdynamic, ByteDance’s Ola Friend has better wearing comfort, stability, and call quality. The effect and sound effects are better. "The overall score is above 85, and the price is cheaper."
"AI agents are growing and will become smarter as they are used." Wei Wei said that both ByteDance and Baidu are trying more possibilities of AI+.
In Wei Wei's view, as an open headset, the addition of Ola Friend has also given the headset track a more sense of crisis. "If competitors do not follow up and add AI functions, they will be slowly eliminated by the market, and even if they follow, they will be eliminated by the market." If we advance, we will lag behind Ola Friend.”
For Zhang Yiming and ByteDance, AI headsets may also be an optimistic new attempt.
“There will be new functions behind ByteDance headphones, which are currently being tested.” Doubao related business personnel mentioned above also revealed that as the entrance to Zhang Yiming’s new hardware dream, Doubao, which has 20 million daily active users, not only has enough users to debug The interactive effect of the product, and even Douyin and TikTok are used as traffic pools at home and abroad. ByteDance is still the most promising to be the first to achieve breakthroughs in the field of AI hardware.
Although they are a little disappointed with the current Ola Friend, the "loyal fans" of bean bags also have high expectations for it.
“As a user of Doubao, I still hope that ByteDance will update the simultaneous translation function as soon as possible.” After purchasing Doubao AI headphones, Aying is still waiting for the further improvement of Doubao’s AI headset functions. For him, spending 1,199 yuan to buy it Ola Friend, which currently has a single function, is a bet on "the day when you can use bean bag headphones to call Douyin and Tomato novels."
Just before that, Musk, who is obsessed with the dream of Mars, also mentioned in a podcast interview, "I would rather be optimistic and wrong than pessimistic and right."
Perhaps Zhang Yiming also has this idea.
Whether AI headphones can support Zhang Yiming’s hardware dream may be difficult to say for the time being. However, putting aside cool concepts and returning to consumer demand itself is the real solution for "bean bags" to move towards the future.