Neo (looking at a helicopter): Can you fly that thing?
Trinity: Not yet.
Tank (on the phone): Operator.
Trinity: Tank, I need a pilot program for a B-212 helicopter. Hurry.
A few seconds later, the program is downloaded into Trinity, and she’s ready to fly.
That scene from the 1999 film, The Matrix, invented a scenario unimagined before, but now impossible to un-see: a world where skills are apps to be downloaded for instant use by simulated beings in the digital world of The Matrix.
Today, we can envision a step closer to the vision of the Wachowski siblings.
I saw a snippet of this vision in Huangzhou, China during my tour of Chinese AI companies in Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB)’s Asia Start Program. One of the highlights of this tour was visiting the headquarters of Unitree Robotics.
When you step into Alibaba’s HQ, you feel like you’re stepping into an organization brimming with confidence, a world beater. When you step into Unitree’s lobby, you feel like you’re stepping into the sales office of any manufacturer in China.
But don’t let Unitree’s humble homebase fool you. This company is already a global force in robotics, on the verge of an IPO, where experts say valuation is around $7 billion.
Unitree’s Go1 is the darling robot dog that prances and dances, but its Go2 and Go2-W (with wheels) are the industrial robots that are used for work too difficult or dangerous for humans, like carrying heavy objects, inspecting hazardous areas, or engaging in military activities.
There’s an App for That
Unitree’s G1 has been a global phenomenon since mass production started in August 2024. You have probably seen this 132cm humanoid running, jumping, dancing, boxing and kung fu-ing in countless videos.
I saw them live and benefited from an interview of one of Unitree’s managers by Mr. JI Bo, who is the Founder of China Start.
Ji, who is the Assistant Dean of Global Executive Education at CKGSB, provided me with insight into the future: You need your robot to cut your grass? There’s an app for that.
“I don’t know how long it will take,” said Ji. “Maybe it’ll be in the next 5 years, but Unitree robots will be operating something like an iPhone. With the iPhone today you can download apps and do a lot of things. In the future, we will see robots work with add-on software, AI software, which will turn those robots into home carers, like laundry robots. You download this app for only $30, and then, voila, this robot is able to cook. Then you develop another one that will be able to do babysitting, or drive a car.”
The vision of a general-purpose robotics platform where new capabilities can be added like installing apps on a smartphone is not new.
Leading robotics companies and experts describe a “robotics app store” as a platform where users can add new capabilities to a robot by downloading software. Instead of each robot being hard-coded for one task, the robot would have a library of plug-and-play skills.
CEO of Agility Robotics, Peggy Johnson, said in this CNBC interview “we envision an app store for robots in the future where if you need a tote recycling app, you can go into the App Store and download that on your robot,” referring to Agility’s Digit robot being able to pick up, move and sort empty plastic baskets (totes) so they can be re-used in a warehouse workflow.
On the website of Apptronik, which makes the humanoid robot, Apollo, the firm’s CEO, Jeff Cardenas, calls their products, the “iPhone of robots.” He went on to say that “the goal is to build one robot that can do thousands of different things. It’s a software update away from doing a new task or a new behavior.”
The $50 Trillion Industry
It will take time.
Consumer deployment in unstructured home environments will lag behind industrial solutions, given the higher safety expectations. If countries deploy safety and liability standards, then manufacturers and applications developers will need to take into account the possibility of a robot crushing a houseguest’s hand in greeting, or breaking down a locked door in order to feed the cat. Such behavior would not result in high net promoter scores.
But eventually, the robotics industry will take off.
Morgan Stanley has estimated the humanoid robotics industry to grow beyond USD5 trillion by 2050, which is the current size of the global automobile industry. “Adoption should be relatively slow until the mid-2030s, accelerating in the late 2030s and 2040s,” says Adam Jonas, Morgan Stanley’s Head of Global Autos and Shared Mobility Research. Morgan Stanley adds that about 90% of the estimated billion units will be employed by manufacturers doing repetitive and structured work, with the majority in China and the US.
This May 2025 report does say that household robots will not be as prevalent as industrial robots by 2050. “The forecast for household usage is much more conservative, with only 80 million humanoids in homes by 2050,” Jonas says. “We are not going to see a robot in every home overnight.”
When that time does come, it’s possible that the robot in your home will be from China. This country is currently the factory of the world, dominating in global manufacturing output for the past 15 years. China is ranked first in 18 of 23 major manufacturing categories, and its mastery of manufacturing processes results in low costs and high exports.
About 90% of the parts that into Unitree’s robots are made by Unitree itself, and it’s G1 robot sells in China for USD16,000, about a tenth of its closest competitor.
As human populations shrink and age, robot populations will grow, assisting humans in almost every imaginable area of human activity.
That is the dream of the robotics industry.
Is it yours?
ARTICLE FAQS
- Why are companies comparing future robots to smartphones?
The idea is simple. A robot would come with a basic set of abilities. New skills would be added by installing software, the same way we install apps on a phone. This approach allows one machine to take on many tasks without new hardware each time. - What makes Unitree an important player in robotics?
Unitree builds affordable quadrupeds and humanoids at scale. It designs most components in-house, which lowers costs and speeds up production. Its robots are already used for physical work, and the firm is attracting global attention as it prepares for a major IPO. - How close are we to robots in the home?
Industrial settings will see this first. Warehouses and factories are predictable, so new behaviors are easier to test and approve. Homes are harder. Safety, liability, and trust standards must be higher. Progress will come, but the rollout will take time. - Why do investors expect such large growth in the robotics sector?
Aging populations, labor shortages, and the desire to automate physical work all drive demand. Forecasts suggest that by 2050, robots used for manufacturing and logistics will dominate the market. Household robots will arrive later and in smaller numbers. - Why is China positioned to produce many of the world’s robots?
China has scale, supply chain depth, and long experience in manufacturing at low cost. Companies like Unitree design and build most parts internally. This increases control and keeps prices low enough to reach mass markets. - What does an “app store for robots” mean for everyday users?
It hints at a future where a single robot could mow grass, sort laundry, or cook dinner after installing the appropriate software. Skills would be modular, priced like apps, and updated over time. The idea expands what one machine can do and lowers the barrier to adoption.
