1,000 units of Pepper, the human-like robot that feels emotions, sell out in a minute

In another sign that Japan loves cute robots, SoftBank's Pepper is proving to be a hit with its consumer launch. The mobile carrier said 1,000 units of the household robot sold out in one minute on Saturday, its first day of consumer sales. The humanoid machine is designed to be a personal robot and a member of the family. It can't do housework, but it can converse, recognize people's emotions, develop its own "feelings" and retrieve information from the Internet such as messages and weather forecasts. SoftBank describes Pepper as the world's first personal robot that has its own emotions. Most of the Peppers were purchased online Saturday, but 30 units were ordered through a drawing held Friday at a SoftBank shop in Tokyo.