Perhaps it's okay, because the target market might be likely to have a capable last-gen smartphone going spare, but my initial assumption was that the smartphon

Perhaps it's okay, because the target market might be likely to have a capable last-gen smartphone going spare, but my initial assumption was that the smartphone <-> bear connection would be done wirelessly. Having to submit your smartphone entirely to the bear's voice-control would be very frustrating to most people and I can see this being a limiting factor when it comes to actual usage.