Samsung’s Ballie home robot, once promised for summer 2025, gets grim update
Since 2020, Samsung has been dangling a yellow ball in front of us. That sphere is a robot named Ballie that Samsung has teased and demoed for home use, including serving as a smart speaker. Today, Ballie is confirmed to be facing an eternity as vaporware.
At CES 2020, Ars Technica reported that Ballie was the furthest-along concept" that Samsung demonstrated. At the time, we saw Ballie use facial recognition to follow its owner. A marketing video also portrayed the robot controlling smart home devices, including activating a smart vacuum when someone made a mess.
Ballie rolled back onto the trade show scene at CES 2024. This time, it had a new, more spherical and larger build rolling upon its three wheels. Ballie also sported a light ring, and Samsung showed a video of the robot being used as a projector. The South Korean firm claimed that Ballie would provide two to three hours of continued projector use" before needing a charge. Samsung's video also demonstrated Ballie connecting with a smartphone.