Samsung's Highly Anticipated Ballie Home Robot Pushed Back, Now Apparently For Internal Use Only.
It's been six years since Samsung first introduced the Ballie home robot at CES 2020. The device was initially teased as a smart speaker that could also control smart home devices and make wine recommendations. Then in 2024, Samsung unveiled an updated version of Ballie with an even larger build and new features such as facial recognition and projector capabilities.
In April 2025, Samsung announced that Ballie would be available for purchase by summer that year, targeting the US and South Korean markets. This was met with anticipation from fans who had been eagerly waiting to see this innovative robot become a reality in their homes.
However, in a recent update, Bloomberg revealed that Samsung has demoted Ballie to internal use only. This news comes as a significant letdown for those who were counting on the robot becoming available for purchase by consumers. The website where people could register to be the first to meet Ballie is still active, but it's unclear whether this means that Ballie will ever leave Samsung's headquarters.
A company spokesperson described Ballie as an "active innovation platform" used for internal use, suggesting that Samsung has decided not to pursue a consumer launch. This decision may have been made due to concerns about the reliability and consistency of Ballie's advertised features over time.
While it remains possible that Samsung could still release Ballie in some form, the recent update suggests that the company is focusing on extracting key features from the robot for use in other products. This may be a result of reevaluating their approach to chatbots, AI-powered smart speakers, and home robots, with many technology companies currently reassessing their strategies.
For now, Ballie's future status as a consumer product remains uncertain, leaving fans and investors wondering what will happen next with this highly anticipated robot.
It's been six years since Samsung first introduced the Ballie home robot at CES 2020. The device was initially teased as a smart speaker that could also control smart home devices and make wine recommendations. Then in 2024, Samsung unveiled an updated version of Ballie with an even larger build and new features such as facial recognition and projector capabilities.
In April 2025, Samsung announced that Ballie would be available for purchase by summer that year, targeting the US and South Korean markets. This was met with anticipation from fans who had been eagerly waiting to see this innovative robot become a reality in their homes.
However, in a recent update, Bloomberg revealed that Samsung has demoted Ballie to internal use only. This news comes as a significant letdown for those who were counting on the robot becoming available for purchase by consumers. The website where people could register to be the first to meet Ballie is still active, but it's unclear whether this means that Ballie will ever leave Samsung's headquarters.
A company spokesperson described Ballie as an "active innovation platform" used for internal use, suggesting that Samsung has decided not to pursue a consumer launch. This decision may have been made due to concerns about the reliability and consistency of Ballie's advertised features over time.
While it remains possible that Samsung could still release Ballie in some form, the recent update suggests that the company is focusing on extracting key features from the robot for use in other products. This may be a result of reevaluating their approach to chatbots, AI-powered smart speakers, and home robots, with many technology companies currently reassessing their strategies.
For now, Ballie's future status as a consumer product remains uncertain, leaving fans and investors wondering what will happen next with this highly anticipated robot.
... I was really looking forward to getting my hands on that thing! It's been six years since they first announced it and now it's just going to be for internal use only? That doesn't make sense to me. They should at least try to release it to the public, even if it's not perfect.
. Maybe Samsung is trying to figure out some issues with its AI capabilities or something, but still, it's pretty frustrating.
. Can we at least know what features are gonna be removed or changed before it even comes out? Just a little transparency would go a long way, you know?
It's like they took the wind out of everyone's sails here... six years ago, we were hyped to get our hands on Ballie and now it's just gonna be a corporate experiment 
. I get that reliability is key but still, can't help feeling let down 
. Maybe they're onto something with this "active innovation platform" thing tho? Guess only time will tell if they'll ever make it available to the masses... fingers crossed 
I've heard rumors that some companies are having trouble making these robots reliable, so maybe Samsung is being smart about it 
. But still, fans will be bummed 
. It's gonna be weird to see all those signs and ads for Ballie just gathering dust 
... I guess only time will tell what Samsung has planned for this robot 
Did they just realize they weren't gonna make it work as planned? 
. Not exactly the news I was hoping for when I heard it would be out this summer 
I was so hyped for this thing to hit stores but now it's just gonna be a internal lab rat 
Guess that 6-year wait wasn't worth it for consumers sadly 
Maybe Samsung is trying to perfect the tech before bringing it out again in some form 
dis is 2 many tech companies, like google n amazon, already killin it w/ their own smart speakers & robots... samsung needs 2 get back 2 basics 
But now it seems like those features are just going to be used in some other product. It's like Samsung is saying, "We're gonna keep the cool stuff for ourselves 
". I don't know, maybe they'll come out with something even better in the future, but right now it feels like a bit of a letdown 
. Maybe we'll get to see some of those features in future smart speakers or something? That would be a bummer, though – I was really looking forward to having Ballie as a part of my daily life 
anyway i guess this doesn't surprise me too much because i heard tech companies can get really nervous about releasing products that don't quite live up to the hype 
so yeah i'm just curious what samsung plans to do with ballie now... maybe they'll make it a smart speaker or something? 
. They should at least give us a heads up or something instead of keeping it under wraps. I'm worried about what this means for consumers, especially with so many companies reevaluating their AI strategies 
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. i mean i get it, they gotta make sure everything is working smoothly and all that jazz, but can't we just have some transparency about what's going down? 
.
. for now, though, fans like us are stuck in limbo 
what if it could've been so much more? 
but it sounds like samsung's decided to keep it locked away inside their HQ 
now that they've tweaked the features and stuff, maybe we'll see a watered-down version in some other product? 
. I guess this is a reminder that even the most innovative ideas need time to mature, and sometimes things don't quite work out as planned