The New MVP: Shipping Hardware Fast and Slow
By Yoel Frischoff
As customer value shifts from hardware to digital layers, new opportunities emerge for fast iteration and user feedback. While hardware remains monolithic and slow to iterate, the digital layers can be modeled, tested, and improved – before and after launch. Software-augmented product development now consists of several MVPs, each released at its own pace.
True to the tradition of grandiose launch events, the $65 million VC-backed Rabbit Inc. stunned the crowds when it unveiled its R1 AI Assistant at CES 2024. Bright orange with a blackened screen, a scroll wheel and a single button, the $199 unit promised to operate your apps – by using the magic word du jour: AI. And splash it did: over 130,000 units sold within weeks.
By mid-2025, Rabbit couldn’t make payroll. Staff went on strike. It took two years, a new funding round, and a pivot — into vibe coding tools and the OpenClaw framework — to chart a path toward a new product planned for mid-2026.
