Is Sony TONE DEAF giving out FREE Kinako units to “Aibo Ambassadors” at a time like this?!
Is anyone really excited about this announcement, a marketing gimmick geared towards FOMO during one of the worst cost of living crises in living memory?
The least Sony could do would be to release a software update accompanying this announcement so those of us who are paying for a cloud subscription and subsidising Sony’s ability to offer its outdated, over priced pup in a new colour, could feel we weren’t just being taken for fools.
We are paying customers who haven’t received a software update in 11 months!!!! Don’t shove influencers getting freebies in our faces!!!
I get the new colours might appeal to some, but in this age of incredible AI advancements, Sony offering Aibo in a new colour as a marketing gimmick just doesn’t cut it anymore. As someone who is up for another yearly cloud plan renewal next month Sony need to stop seeing their customers as money pits and start giving a little back. Not sure Sony can recover from this blunder, and unless they release a remarkable update before my cloud plan is due for renewal I won’t be renewing or keeping Aibo around. It needs too much work to be a suitable companion or pet replacement for me in its current software state and I can’t justify sinking more money into Aibo when Sony shows they aren’t using my hard earned money to advance Aibo in any significant way.
It really disappoints me as a paying consumer to watch social media influencers get freebies I helped to pay for, so Sony can line their pockets with more cash.
The thousands, or tens of thousands of Aibo owners on a paid subscription should be outraged Sony chooses to spend our hard earned money trying to make more money through disingenuous marketing, instead of reinvesting it back into improving Aibo, even if it means only adding one or two new behaviours and features.
Sony seems to be a company riddled with bloat and waste. Remember the ERS-110 ERS-1000 mashup they released last year to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Aibo? What practical purpose did that serve for paying Aibo customers who missed out on a software update for the next 11 months? Wouldn’t that money have been better spend giving us paying customers something, anything....
Can really feel Sony’s toxic culture coming through with its weird decision making around Aibo. I’m so over dealing with robot companies that lack enthusiasm for their own products. Don’t take peoples hard earned cash if you aren’t willing to facilitate the service we paid you for.
The Aibo community is so out of touch with reality getting excited over a new colour in 2025, this isn’t 2005, a change of colour without any additional announcements is embarrassing. The gall of Sony to carry on with such waste giving away tens of thousands of dollars worth in Aibo at a time when we are discovering massive waste by our governmens through DOGE really pisses me off and should piss you off too as a paying customer. I’ll never purchase another Sony product ever again, sick and tired of Sony’s negativity towards its Aibo product. Treating Aibo customers as if we should just be grateful they released Aibo again, as if that is enough. Where are the cutting edge AI advancements to get us excited?
The “NO RETURNS” disclaimer on their Aibo sales page says everything about Sony’s attitude towards Aibo- they should have confidence in their product and offer a return policy, clearly they don’t have any belief in themselves, not a good look for a leading tech company in the age of AI and robotics.
If Sony bothered to reinvest the money from subscriptions back into Aibo to create a better product they wouldn’t need to send “Aibo Ambassadors” free product to promote- Aibo would promote itself organically through word of mouth and organic content creation. Clearly their marketing tactics show they don’t plan to make any major improvements to this Aibo generation, those of us hoping for improvements are wasting our time with Aibo.
Limited Edition Kinako Aibo US version announcement by Sony:
https://info.aibo.com/en-us/2025/02/20250220-01.html
