Jibo Launch Cancelled Everywhere Except US, Canada

Jibo, the highly-sociable, smart home robot, will not be stepping foot outside of the US or Canada, as the company has decided to cancel its global launch plans. That means those who backed the IndieGoGo campaign from countries outside of the US and Canada will no longer receive their orders and are being offered a full refund.

Like Amazon Echo and Alexa, Jibo is designed as an always-on listening device that can perform smart home functions, tell jokes and help run a person’s day-to-day life. Unlike the Amazon Echo however, Jibo is capable of identifying people using facial recognition and will even look the user directly in the eye when communicating with them.

That’s not where the Jibo’s similarities end however, as it seems, just like Alexa, Jibo has a hard time understanding accents that aren’t US English. That means Australians, Brits, Kiwis and Indians are apparently too thick accented for Jibo to be able to understand what they’re actually saying. Canadians are fine however.

Despite the concerns over accents, that’s not the only issue that has led to the cancellation of Jibo’s global launch plans. The company has also stated that it is worried about potential latency issues involved for people in countries outside of the US. That’s because the company’s servers are based in the US and those in Germany or Sweden would likely receive an inferior experience than those in the US.

Unlike the Amazon Echo however, Jibo is extremely strict on usage outside of the US. The company is even going so far as to void the warranty of anyone who dares to use the Jibo outside of the US or Canada – a rather extreme step for it to take.

The Amazon Echo is expected to launch in the UK later this year, but it’s unlikely that we’ll be seeing a Jibo launch outside of the US or Canada anytime soon. While the makers of the device state that they do wish to launch Jibo globally, it will be done on a country-by-country basis – with devices specifically built for their respective markets. That requires significant resources, so Jibo would need to be a massive success in the US and Canada for it to come to fruition. International launch plans also won’t happen until late 2017, at the earliest.