iyO Audio: Seeking the next iPhone moment (yes, here we go again)
iyO Audio is the latest startup trying to convince us that the future of computing isn’t in your pocket — it’s in your ear. Spun out of Google X in 2021, iyO is building what it calls the world’s first “audio computer”: a screenless, voice-controlled device designed to replace your phone with a more ambient, natural interface.
Humane 2.0?
The pitch sounds familiar because we’ve heard echoes of it before — most recently from Humane, whose AI Pin debuted to enormous hype and equally enormous disappointment.
But unlike Humane — which had hundreds of millions in funding, dozens of engineers, and a high-profile launch — iyO is running lean. With just 22 employees, limited capital, and a product still in pre-order limbo, it's trying to do something exceedingly difficult: build a new hardware category without the infrastructure that makes it possible.
The iyO One promises a hands-free, conversational operating system layered into a custom-fit silicone earpiece. The $100 pre-order fee sounds attractive, until you learn it’s just a deposit for a product expected to cost $1,000–$1,200. That’s a steep ask for a device that doesn’t yet exist in the hands of consumers — and one that also requires a professional fitting by an audiologist, which adds another layer of cost and logistical friction.
History matters
Founder Jason Rugolo has been demonstrating prototypes and pushing a vision of a post-smartphone world not unlike the SF movie Her. But making that real means solving hard problems: integrating cellular tech, finishing hardware design, and building out a developer ecosystem (all while managing manufacturing, customer support, and financing).
And this is where history matters.
Google X, where iyO got its start, has launched many ambitious ideas, but few (if any) have landed. Projects like Glass and Loon captured imaginations but ultimately failed to reach sustainable markets. And in today’s environment — where even well-funded startups like Humane struggle to deliver on their promises — the bar is even higher. Vision is one thing. Shipping a durable, useful, affordable product — and building the infrastructure to support it — is another.
Not to forget there's a big elephant in the room...
Know who's a big fan of the Her movie ear-plugin-fully-personal-AI-interface-with-the-world?
What do I make of this?
Colour me a skeptic (in case you still had any doubts after reading all this), but my main gripe with all of this isn’t so much that startups try things that seem doomed from the outset. It’s the collective lack of imagination that seems to define what we call Silicon Valley. Everything I’ve seen coming out of that ecosystem in recent years screams of endogamy: the same mindsets, the same ideas, the same digital strategies—over and over again.
And when I regularly get annoyed by what the Euro tech scene does (or doesn’t), it’s pretty much for the same reasons. Despite our far greater diversity potential, we somehow end up regurgitating the same tired ideas about digital, chasing the same fuzzy, omni-use consumer platforms—instead of, I don’t know, solving hard problems?