During a recent episode of The Verge’s Decoder podcast, Logitech CEO Hanneke Faber shared some insight into the company’s take on one of its most important products. Stating that “this house was built by a mouse,” Faber discussed the plans behind the Forever Mouse, a premium product that the company hopes will be the last product users ever need to buy. Subscription-based services and a deeper focus on AI were also discussed.
Logitech takes its cue from luxury watches and believes that if a device, whether a keyboard or mouse, is premium enough, consumers are less likely to want to replace it.
When asked about the movie she saw, Faber said:[It] It was a little heavy, but it had great software and services, was constantly updated, and was beautiful.”
But while some consumers may like the idea of a premium mouse that’s constantly updated, many won’t be pleased with the price: Nilay Patel, host of Decoder and editor-in-chief of The Verge, said the mouse could cost around $200. Faber acknowledged that this is a tough business model, but suggested that software will become even more important, questioning how to establish the right service model.
“We’re interested in mice and video conferencing solutions that work forever with just a software update, and we’re building our business model around that,” she says.
Another piece of the Forever Mouse puzzle is software: Logitech is using its Options Plus software, which essentially walks users through creating prompts for interacting with the AI. But Faber says this is just the beginning.
“No, I think we’re at the beginning of AI. [with time]It will be multimodal, and you won’t even need to create prompts, because you’ll know what prompts you need. Things are just going to evolve. Who knows. But I think the human will be the limiting factor. The human hand, the human brain. I think we’ll still need human-technology interfaces. It might not be exactly the same as what Logitech sells today, but I think the future of human-technology interfaces is really bright.”
For now, details about the Forever Mouse are unclear, but something is definitely wrong. The Instant Pot was such a good product that customers rarely needed to repurchase. The company went bankrupt.
