Logitech CEO Hanneke Faber recently discussed the possibility of one day selling a mouse that customers can use “forever.” The executive said such a mouse isn’t “necessarily super far away” and will rely on software updates, likely delivered through a subscription model.
Speaking on a July 29 episode of The Verge’s Decoder podcast, Faber, who Logitech appointed as CEO in October, said that members of a “Logitech innovation center” showed her “a forever mouse” and compared it to a nice but not “super expensive” watch. She said:
I’m not planning to throw that watch away ever. So why would I be throwing my mouse or my keyboard away if it’s a fantastic-quality, well-designed, software-enabled mouse? The forever mouse is one of the things that we’d like to get to.
Having to pay a regular fee for full use of a peripheral could deter customers, though. HP is trying a similar idea with rentable printers that require a monthly fee. The printers differ from the idea of the forever mouse in that the HP hardware belongs to HP, not the user. However, concerns around tracking and the addition of ongoing expenses are similar.>>>>
What’s the value proposition here? Free no-questions-asked replacement if it breaks? Free upgrades when new models come out (though they have no real incentive to keep developing new “forever mice”)?
If my mice on average last, say, 6 years and cost $175 (I splurged on a high-end one last time), the subscription will have to be less than $2.40/month, and since customers absolutely hate subscriptions, especially if there’s no real benefit, probably even less than $1.50/month for most to even consider it.
In fact the Logitech mouse before my current mouse lasted 12 years and cost me $75, so that’s a max subscription cost of 50 cents/month for it to be comparable.
It will be $7.99 - look it’s so much less than $175, so much cheaper!
/s
The article says this mouse will be $200 upfront, plus the subscription.