Anki, the consumer robotics and artificial intelligence (A.I.) company, celebrated a successful 2017 holiday with Cozmo earning the top spot for the best-selling toy on Amazon U.S. two years in a row, according to One Click Retail (report). The critically acclaimed robot was also the best-selling toy of 2017 on Amazon in the U.K. and France following its global debut this past September.
In addition to making waves on Amazon, Anki was recently recognized by Fast Company in their annual ranking of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2018. Anki was named #2 in the Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Robotics. Anki has had the honor of being featured in Fast Company’s rankings for four consecutive years.
“We’re grateful to all our fans for welcoming Cozmo into their homes and making him the top robot of the holiday,” said Boris Sofman, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder, Anki. “We strive to reinvent the type of experiences people can have with machines. Cozmo’s success is proof that robotics can be a core tool in how companies transform their products and services. As we continue to build out our core technologies, we look forward to delivering new and compelling experiences beyond entertainment to audiences worldwide.”
Cozmo also received The NPD Group’s U.S. Toy Industry Award* for Top Selling Toy of 2017 in the Youth Electronics supercategory, with the winners announced at New York Toy Fair on February 17. Anki’s OVERDRIVE Starter Kit was also recognized by The NPD Group as the number one best-selling toy in the Electric & Battery Cars Sets and Accessories subclass.
Cozmo's big brain and even bigger personality are operated by sophisticated robotic and AI systems. Last summer, Anki released a free update to Cozmo called, Code Lab - a visual, block-based programming language. With Code Lab, Cozmo owners have unprecedented access to his core functionality. Simply drag and drop a few blocks and see Cozmo act out the owner’s creation. To date, Anki continues to release monthly updates in Code Lab including featured projects that give Cozmo owners more games and content to interact with or remix the code to their own liking.
Fun Cozmo stats for 2017:
- Code Lab Projects created since launch last summer: 460,000
- Number of faces Cozmo has “met”: Nearly 2 million
- Games played with Cozmo: More than 10 million