Softbank will take pre-orders for enterprise version of Pepper starting Oct 1

Developing Story: Softbank today announced that it will be taking preorders for the enterprise version of their Pepper robot, called “Pepper for Biz” starting October 1 this year. This comes one day after Japanese telco rival NTT launched a competing consumer robot called Sota. The enterprise model will be available on a three year rental contract, after which Softbank will reclaim the robot. During the rental period Softbank will provide phone and technical support. The monthly cost will be 55,000 JPY (~$440USD), for a total of 1,980,000 JPY (~$16,000USD) over the three years.

Both Softbank and NTT, with their large existing consumer bases, both seem to be vying to develop the robot-as-a-service market.

If you liked this article, you may also be interested in:

• Japanese telcos vie for share in consumer robot-as-a-service business
• Forget Google and unicorns, Asian dragons are going to dominate robotics
• Foxconn and Alibaba invest in SoftBank Robotics as Pepper goes on sale in Japan
• Nestlé 1st big buyer of Softbank’s Pepper robot
• Natural language: The de-facto interface convention for social robotics
• The second wave of social robots is here

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Hallie Siegel robotics editor-at-large

Hallie Siegel robotics editor-at-large