The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2016–2019
Sharp RoBoHoN: a ¥198,000 walking robot that also works as a phone
A tiny two-legged robot phone, launched at ¥198,000 in 2016, sold 12,000 units against a 5,000-per-month target — first-gen production ended in 2019.
Sharp · 2016-05-26
What happened
RoBoHoN was Sharp's bet that a robot could be a phone: a 19.5 cm tall, 390 g humanoid that walked on two legs, took calls, ran Android, and projected film onto a wall from a built-in laser projector. Developed with robot designer Tomotaka Takahashi, it was billed as the world's first mobile robotic phone when it went on sale in Japan on 26 May 2016 at a suggested retail price of ¥198,000 plus tax.
The price was the product's own enemy. Sharp's monthly sales target for the first generation was 5,000 units, but by January 2019 cumulative sales stood at only about 12,000 units — roughly 7% of the target a hypersuccessful eighteen months would have implied. At ¥198,000 it cost more than a premium smartphone for a robot that was also a phone and did neither job as well as a phone buyer would expect.
Sharp ended first-generation production and sold off remaining stock. A second generation followed in February 2019 starting at a far lower ¥79,000, targeting 30,000 units — a rescue attempt that priced the robot like the toy it had struggled to sell as, rather than the phone it had claimed to be.
Why it happened
- Sharp priced a novelty at ¥198,000 — more than a premium phone — for a 20 cm robot too bulky to carry, so it sat outside both the phone buyer's and hobbyist's budget.
- The product split the difference between toy and tool: too bulky to pocket and not capable enough to replace a phone, so the novelty wore off into an overpriced phone.
- Sharp targeted 5,000 per month against a niche it had never validated, then met about 7% of it over three years — the gap between demo and daily use closed the line.
The lesson
A novelty price cannot outlive the novelty. RoBoHoN charged a premium-phone price for a 20 cm robot that was too bulky to carry — price a gimmick for repeat value, not first impressions.
Aftermath
Sharp ended first-generation RoBoHoN production and sold remaining stock. A second-generation model launched in February 2019 at ¥79,000 and up, but the robot-phone category never became a mainstream line.
Sources
- Sharp press release — RoBoHoN, the first mobile robotic phone (Apr 2016)
- Kotoo — Sharp RoBoHoN first-gen sold only 7% of production target (Jan 2019)
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