I'd totally get one if it was in my "fun but wasteful" price range. So for example something like a Raspberry Pi is an easy purchase, as is something like Intel's Compute Stick at $89. Really under $100 and it is an easy buy just for fun and because it is different/unique.
However I don't see a price and an order page, so I don't think this "Mouse Box" exists yet. I guess they're just testing the waters? For me price is a key part of this product's success.
It might have legitimate uses, like presentations, but realistically it is a novelty and people have a budget for novelty gadgets. So if they can hit the sub-$100 price point and appear on sites like ThinkGeek as something to show off to your friends/colleagues, they'll do pretty well.
If it is like $200-300 then frankly I can just plug my smartphone into HDMI and use a bluetooth mouse which costs under $30 for the same effect.
It appears to have 128 GB internal storage, which I believe would easily bump it over the $100 range.
I think the real limitation is not the price, however, but rather the operating system. Since its ARM based, it would probably have some sort of Debian distro installed as opposed to a more mainstream OS (Windows etc). I wonder if we'll see a revision with an x86 Atom processor or something in the future.
I can definitely see a road warrior sales type buying this and a roll-up bluetooth keyboard or something for putting in his daybag to make presentations, etc., then just using his smartphone for on-the-move stuff.
I'd totally get one if it was in my "fun but wasteful" price range. So for example something like a Raspberry Pi is an easy purchase, as is something like Intel's Compute Stick at $89. Really under $100 and it is an easy buy just for fun and because it is different/unique.
However I don't see a price and an order page, so I don't think this "Mouse Box" exists yet. I guess they're just testing the waters? For me price is a key part of this product's success.
It might have legitimate uses, like presentations, but realistically it is a novelty and people have a budget for novelty gadgets. So if they can hit the sub-$100 price point and appear on sites like ThinkGeek as something to show off to your friends/colleagues, they'll do pretty well.
If it is like $200-300 then frankly I can just plug my smartphone into HDMI and use a bluetooth mouse which costs under $30 for the same effect.