I understand this particular product is [edit] designed by Teenage Engineering and it's kinda what they do. But that makes it a niche product.
But there is no reason for a serious product to have a screen, a camera, a speaker, and a network connection and not be a smartphone.
Both are expected to release major updates to their assistant including on-device LLM/LAM.
The technology has only recently reached a point where it could rival traditional mobile computing. Dismissing the entire field based on these early attempts would be a mistake.
If anything, current smartphone leaders would be foolish to not jump at the opportunity to introduce standalone devices themselves. They eventually likely will, and will market their versions as the real innovations.
And from people who have used the Rabbit the LAM concept as they have done it is unusable e.g. it was ordering from DoorDash to the wrong address / incorrect tip and they had no way to change it.
User experience is just as important as the technology.