Logitech CEO lays out the potential future of the mouse and keyboard. Logitech is working on a forever mouse that has a subscription-based model.
During a recent episode of The Verge’s Decoder podcast, Logitech CEO Hanneke Faber shed some possible insight into the company’s view on one of its most important products. Saying that “the mouse built this house,” Faber shares the planning behind a Forever Mouse, a premium product that the company hopes will be the last you ever have to buy. There’s also a discussion about a subscription-based service and a deeper focus on AI.
For now, details on a Forever Mouse are thin, but you better believe there will be a catch. The Instant Pot was a product so good that customers rarely needed to buy another one. The company went bankrupt.
You know they will, just making a good product isn’t enough, they need to somehow sell us more bullshit so they can make infinitely more money than ever all the time. So Logitech will absolutely go through with something like this
I use a computer a lot, and I have an expensive keyboard and mouse. I’m the target market in a sense; if there was a compelling enough upgrade to either, I’d probably buy it.
I can’t imagine what software features they could possibly offer that would qualify, doubly so as a subscription. I picked my mouse because it has lots of buttons, a responsive sensor, low-latency wireless, and it runs on a standardized replaceable battery. It would be hard to improve any of that with software.
Reminds me of what happed to GE’s lighting division. They used to have a steady stream of income from people replacing burned out bulbs. The CFLs and LED bulbs came in.
GE made a ton of money selling the new bulbs to homes, businesses and cities, but then the money dried up because the new bulbs lasted way longer.
Then they started scrambling to do weird shit with lighting. Like cramming cameras and sensors into bulbs so lights could be used for surveillance in cities and stores. They were basically struggling to find a new reason why you’d want to by a new bulb.
My entire house is LEDs. I was a pretty early adopter and I still have the OG Phillips bulbs floating around my house.
In 10 years I’ve only had one bulb crap out. With incandescent bulbs there were always several a year that needed to be swapped. Back in the day I used to have a box of extra bulbs in my closet. I no longer keep that box because it’s just taking up space for something that is almost never touched.
Most articles confirm my experience and show that LEDs have muuuuch longer lifespans.
Not only that, but there’s a 100% chance they sell this shit to you as a forever mouse, then in a few years if it’s not making them money hand over fist, they’ll discontinue it and keep your money.
Logitech’s desire to put AI in my IO devices is exactly why I am moving to a different manufacturer. I want solid hardware, not hardware as a service. HP also is trying this with printers and it’s total bullshit.
If I am paying a monthly fee, I’d better not also have to buy garbage hardware. That better be provided for free and replaced when it inevitably fails.
This reminds me: I got a Logitech mouse as a gift a while back, and to get it functioning I needed to install a settings app for it for some reason. Today, I find in my Task Manager that they somehow installed an AI assistant platform thing using that settings app. I’m currently in the market for a new mouse lol.
Was another perk switching to Linux, my keyboard I can bake in profiles (using a windows VM) then dispose of that VM once my keyboard is setup the way I wanted.
SteelSeries software is horrendous, up there with the Razer.
I was a flunky of Logitech for most of my life, but after multiple mice in a row that developed the double click issue in far too short a time, I have vowed to never buy another.
I’ve been super happy using simple, cheap assed mice and I can’t tell the difference in the slightest.
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Damn Logitech, you’ve been my go-to for peripherals for a couple of decades now
Don’t fuck this up
You know they will, just making a good product isn’t enough, they need to somehow sell us more bullshit so they can make infinitely more money than ever all the time. So Logitech will absolutely go through with something like this
I use a computer a lot, and I have an expensive keyboard and mouse. I’m the target market in a sense; if there was a compelling enough upgrade to either, I’d probably buy it.
I can’t imagine what software features they could possibly offer that would qualify, doubly so as a subscription. I picked my mouse because it has lots of buttons, a responsive sensor, low-latency wireless, and it runs on a standardized replaceable battery. It would be hard to improve any of that with software.
And I want whoever came up with this idea to spontaneously combust, but neither of us is going to get what we want.
MaaS?
And I don’t want to buy it. Not everything needs to be a subscription.
Or an app.
More like “[almost] everything needs not to be a subscription!”
Yep. Products should never need subscriptions. Only services. Things like Photoshop even, absolutely shouldn’t be subscriptions.
Reminds me of what happed to GE’s lighting division. They used to have a steady stream of income from people replacing burned out bulbs. The CFLs and LED bulbs came in.
GE made a ton of money selling the new bulbs to homes, businesses and cities, but then the money dried up because the new bulbs lasted way longer.
Then they started scrambling to do weird shit with lighting. Like cramming cameras and sensors into bulbs so lights could be used for surveillance in cities and stores. They were basically struggling to find a new reason why you’d want to by a new bulb.
The LED elements last a lifetime, but the driver transistors burn out as frequently as traditional bulbs
My entire house is LEDs. I was a pretty early adopter and I still have the OG Phillips bulbs floating around my house.
In 10 years I’ve only had one bulb crap out. With incandescent bulbs there were always several a year that needed to be swapped. Back in the day I used to have a box of extra bulbs in my closet. I no longer keep that box because it’s just taking up space for something that is almost never touched.
Most articles confirm my experience and show that LEDs have muuuuch longer lifespans.
Reminder that getting a subscription service means moving away from something you buy occasionally to something you pay forever
Not only that, but there’s a 100% chance they sell this shit to you as a forever mouse, then in a few years if it’s not making them money hand over fist, they’ll discontinue it and keep your money.
Logitech’s desire to put AI in my IO devices is exactly why I am moving to a different manufacturer. I want solid hardware, not hardware as a service. HP also is trying this with printers and it’s total bullshit.
If I am paying a monthly fee, I’d better not also have to buy garbage hardware. That better be provided for free and replaced when it inevitably fails.
Magnesium mouse
OR
Forever subscription
Hard to decide here, fellas. Idk.
Bite my shiny metal PS/2 adapter
No.
This reminds me: I got a Logitech mouse as a gift a while back, and to get it functioning I needed to install a settings app for it for some reason. Today, I find in my Task Manager that they somehow installed an AI assistant platform thing using that settings app. I’m currently in the market for a new mouse lol.
Man the Logi settings app was utter trash, so slow to run or even change settings.
Ratbagd + Piper gave me the ability to change my DPI (no switch on the super light) without any bloat.
That sounds perfect for what I need actually. Thanks for sharing that!
Was another perk switching to Linux, my keyboard I can bake in profiles (using a windows VM) then dispose of that VM once my keyboard is setup the way I wanted.
SteelSeries software is horrendous, up there with the Razer.
I was a flunky of Logitech for most of my life, but after multiple mice in a row that developed the double click issue in far too short a time, I have vowed to never buy another.
I’ve been super happy using simple, cheap assed mice and I can’t tell the difference in the slightest.
$20 mice ftw.
Oh God if they put AI in the MX Master Mice then I’m boned.