Logitech’s ‘Forever Mouse’ Idea Pulled Back After Backlash
from the forever-in-our-memories dept
It was just a few months ago that we had some fun with Logitech over it’s amazing, never been done before AI mouse… that was actually just a rehash of a previous mouse that had a button that could be used to launch a ChatGPT prompt. So it wasn’t so much an AI mouse, as a mouse that could button-click you to an AI prompt. To borrow a catchphrase from John Oliver… “cool.”
Well, Logitech CEO Hanneke Faber went on the Decoder podcast recently to talk about some of the changes that were occurring at Logitech, as well as an idea for a new “forever mouse” that would come with a subscription cost for regular feature updates. This device would be built solidly, so as to allow for a longer lifespan than your typical mouse. But then came the question of how to fit a device with that kind of longevity into a business model.
I’m going to ask this very directly. Can you envision a subscription mouse?
Possibly.
And that would be the forever mouse?
Yeah.
So you pay a subscription for software updates to your mouse.
Yeah, and you never have to worry about it again, which is not unlike our video conferencing services today.
But it’s a mouse.
But it’s a mouse, yeah.
I think consumers might perceive those to be very different.
Narrator: consumers perceived those to be very different. From both the public and tech journalists alike, the idea of a subscription-based optical mouse was lampooned viciously. And for good reason. The fatigue in the public for subscription sprawl is very, very real. As is the public’s ability to suss out when they’re being scammed. The idea that a peripheral like a mouse should come with a monthly subscription is obviously absurd on its face. I need my mouse to point and click at things and then, hey, maybe a couple of other features. I don’t need it to change. I don’t need it to download anything beyond any updates that will keep it working with my operating system. Point. And then click.
Ultimately, though, I think the main problem people might find with a forever mouse—which, let’s face it, is really just another way of saying a subscription mouse—is that many of us don’t like having to continually pay for something we used to just own. It’s already unsettling just how much of our digital space is offered as a service with a subscription rather than an up-front price tag, so do we really want our physical peripherals to join that list?
It’s a question it appears we don’t have to answer in the immediate. Logitech’s Nicole Kenyon released a statement that the company has no plans for any mouse that would require a subscription with it.
“There are no plans for a subscription mouse,” said Logitech communications head Nicole Kenyon in a statement provided to The Verge and other publications.
Now, Kenyon writes in response to inaccurate reports about the interview, Logitech’s stance is that “the mouse mentioned is not an actual or planned product but a peek into provocative internal thinking on future possibilities for more sustainable consumer electronics.”
“Inaccurate reporting.” Sorry, but no. At the very best, Faber was inarticulate or unclear in her statements as to whether this device or idea was planned or just some spitballed brainstorming result. And I don’t doubt for a second that if the public was silent about this idea, it would have made its way into production plans.
For now, it appears, we’ll have to stick with enjoying the “AI” mouse along with watching this retreat from the public mocking the company has undergone.
Comments on “Logitech’s ‘Forever Mouse’ Idea Pulled Back After Backlash”
Seriously what kind of software update to a mouse could improve it all that much? Never mind they can’t even be arsed to update drivers once in a blue moon for a Windows update – or provide proper drivers for any other OS.
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I’m not in that sort of market, but there are high-end mice for things like gaming where some people spend a lot of money for high performance and high levels of customisation, which includes software customisation of buttons, sensitivity, etc.
When I heard this reported, I just assumed they were talking about that sort of niche market, but it was badly communicated and caused people to have visions of needing to subscribe to be able to use the basic functions on the mouse they maybe replace every 10 years for use with Excel.
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Yes, MMO mice and other specialized things make sense for their use cases, but i still don’t understand what could be improved in the software on a monthly subscription basis that would be anything more than fixes for things that should have been finalized long before the hardware went to market and that one should not be having to pay for.
In fact, all these companies spend way too much time making big honking programs which do absolutely nothing other (or worse) than what settings could be easily exposed in a stupid modal dialog box. i’ve seen mouse software that is just as stupid, useless, and large as printer software. i would literally pay to not have all the extra cruft and dreck.
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“but i still don’t understand what could be improved in the software on a monthly subscription basis ”
The mouse enabled advertising must be updated.
Admittedly, if Logitech mice came with a subscription for replacement button-click switches, that might be a thing. Or – and this is just spitballing here – they could build the things with more durable switches!
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I’m hoping that’s what “This device would be built solidly, so as to allow for a longer lifespan than your typical mouse” would mean. Solderless replacement with a few included spares would be nice, too.
A Logitech mouse/trackball is already kind of a short-term subscription: I’ve rarely had one last even a year, let alone the 3-year warranty period, which means I could claim 3 or 4 replacements if I could be bothered. In practice, I found like 10 Microsoft Intellimice in the e-waste bin at work and have been harvesting them for switches.
Which is to say that Microsoft already invented, 25 years ago, the “forever” mouse that Logitech is only talking about. Not really forever, but they last about 10 years of 8-hour-per-day use, to Logitech’s 1 year. And I think they cost about the same.
“a peek into provocative internal thinking on future possibilities” is corporate-speak for “trial balloon”. It went over like a lead one, so they’re going to have to go back to the drawing board on the marketing approach.
The only reason a mouse/trackball needs software at all is that Windows doesn’t provide any native way of assigning actions to more than 3 buttons.
Tim…. just a tiny tip: if you need your mouse to be updated to work with your OS: You’ve been scammed. Probably doubly so. That means your OS and/or mouse is carefully designed to be full of more shit than I can fit in my entire apartment.
Seriously. There are well documented. Functional protocol for a mouse and OS to communicate with. The idea of a mouse needing updates to work with your OS is like your butter knife needing an update before you can butter your toast.
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Such ideas are out there—in fictional form, at least. See Cory Doctorow’s Unauthorized Bread. You can bet that someone missed the satire and saw an interesting business plan.
Nipplemice in Paris
Trackball so hard motherfuckers wanna fine me
They weren’t wrong about the provocative part, but I personally wish the thinking stayed internal and never made it to the light of day.
Even the most sociopathic leaders know that you don’t say the quiet parts out loud if you know what’s good for you.
What a steal(for one side anyway)!
In the not too distant future…
‘Our basic package is only $29.99, but for a small extra fee of $9.99/month you’ll have access to the deluxe package, which enables full use of the right mouse button in addition to the left!’
It’s laser will only worth with authorized mouse pads.
Logitech: put your thinking–and your mouse–back in the box. Thank you (and bring back the T650).
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Amen, brother. Give me back the Mx310 for $30 back when it was introduced as a business model. I know it disappeared for awhile, now it’s back on amaz0n as a $256 “gaming” model. Check out the comments on that page for a trip down memory lane.
So this is an example of a so-called “CEO joke”? I don’t even knew CEO could have a sense of humor. Now I’m relieved, they have none.
Ok, a “forever” mouse. Does this mean you will just send me a new one when one breaks? Are you going to need to update it weekly like windows to cover holes in security it will create? Will it just stop working if you don’t subscribe? Are they going to hold my mouse hostage because I can’t pay for the subscription, but it was the mouse Dell sent me?
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No. The subscription is forever, but the hardware is still hardware and when you break it or it wears out, you get to buy another one.
As far as Logitech is concerned, the subscription fees continue, which is entirely the point of this shitty, shitty idea.
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We all know what the answer is, but as Louis Rossmann has demonstrated: companies are absolutely allowed to sell you perpetual, forever licenses, but they can always take it away from you and renege on the promises made despite the fact that customers would absolutely not be paying for forever licenses had they known, ahead of time, that companies can just hold their work or content hostage forever.
And companies simply do not want to acknowledge this power imbalance. They absolutely want their customers to be captive, but also to reap none of the support or benefits that such an arrangement would theoretically provide.
For a monthly fee I expect them to provide replacement for parts that break due to normal usage wear and malfunction. And a brand new mouse if it can’t be fixed.
Charging for a subscription only to ensure software updates is taking your potential customers for idiots. The backlash wasn’t nearly as bad as they deserve.
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BMW has entered the chat
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“Idiocy” was was kind of my view of mice and trackballs that include custom software. But apparently they’re still doing it. (Common sense would suggest that operating systems would’ve subsumed any actually-useful features by now.)
I give Logitech credit here. Never in my worst fever dream of enshittification did I ever think some cabal of jackasses would try to make mice subscription based.
There is absolutely no reason for anything like this, no matter how much they spin this turd, it’s still a turd.
In fact, had I been at the press conference where they announced this, I would have stood up at the point where they asked for questions and given the Billy Madison speech about everyone being dumber for having heard this.
Let me be clear to Logitech regarding subscription based mice:
Logitech, Go. Fuck. Yourself.
internet required
A mouse that needs internet access to prove your subscription is still current. lol
I bought a so called “gaming mouse”, whatever the hell they are supposed to be, years ago, took it home and plugged it into my Linux box and hey, guess what? It fucking worked! And it’s been working ever since. If someone is trying to sell you “upgrades” to your mouse, they should be told in no uncertain terms where to go.
Here’s your comparison price point to inform your decision making: for a monthly fee of about $6, you can have Amazon ship you a brand new mouse every month.
So, Logitech, how does your “forever” mouse compare to that?
We need an AI powered mouse
The real innovation of having an AI powered mouse is that it can automatically click things for you.
[x] Subscribe
[x] Automatic payments
[ ] Respect my privacy
[ ] Notify me of price increases
[x] Auto enroll me in exciting new craptacular offers
With this technology, there’s no need to even bother you with asking anymore since the mouse can click the boxes for you!
The biggest lie here is someone pushing a physical device that works by physically manipulating it that will last forever.
Anything that has moving parts breaks eventually. Did they think they were going to invent some software that magically fucking replaces/refurbishes the parts of the mouse over time?
Fuck India