HAY GUYS LOOK AT HOW CUSTOMERS LOVE HP AFTER THEIR SWITCH TO SUBSCRIPTION PRINTERS. WE SHOULD DO THAT TOO!
–Overheard from the Logitech C-Suite, probably
Was just a dopey idea in the first place. Nobody replaces a mouse because it’s lacking software features, they replace a mouse when the switches wear out.
Which is planned obsolescence anyways.
It’s not a dopey idea, it’s an enshitification one, and one we will see again because there are no consequences.
Logitech will have subscription hardware, guaranteed. They’ll just go back to the drawing board on how to market anti-consumer practices better.
And similarly are antitrust regulations have done nothing to prevent companies like Logitech from just acquiring all of their competitors and then doing this anyways once there is no more competition. And even using potential competitors into bankruptcy before they can actually compete.
Well, this is basically all companies. The management are so disconnected from reality.
For now.
Why pay for something you won’t be using all the time? Why not just pay for it only when you’re using it? Oh–well yeah, you’ll have to buy it first–but then you’ll only have to pay to use it when you want to use it, and only when you want to use it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
What a fucking breakthrough
Ohhh, you get to pay based on the meters of mouse movement you do. Usage based billing, perfect.
Ooh, then your mouse can stop working when you run out of meters and then you have to buy more to top it up! Excellent.
This guy gets it! 🥂
Mouse usage 🤝 paying for distance used
The first attempt of many, the tech industry will normalise a subscription model alongside the hardware they just need to find the right justification that doesn’t have universal push back. It worked for games, the trojan horse used was (often token) multiplayer addition and it will work in hardware too once they find the right combination.
Isn’t it already like that with tractors and some phones?
once they find the right combination
Car.
Pulled back for now, to be retweaked and pushed at a later time
It was never a proposed product. The host asked if they could envision it someday and they said yeah.
“Forever Pay For Your Mouse”
We already do, with intentionally fast breaking switches. They get away with charging $100 for a mouse, and ensuring a $0.30 part will break long before the devices useful lifetime. Generating mountains of ewaste.
Why can’t they get away with the next step, which is charging a subscription fee to use their mice as well?
That’s a more accurate branding.
A feel a little bad for the Logitech CEO here. It was basically a softball question, do you ever think you’ll have software subscriptions, which is a common thing, and he answered “Yeah, that’s possible.”
Obviously for a mouse it doesn’t really make sense, but paid software updates are common in the industry so who knows.
Obviously it’s stupid, but it’s funny to see it play out.
