Anika Begay
Faber: The other day in Ireland, in our innovation center, one of our team members showed me an eternal mouse and compared it to a watch. It’s a nice watch, not a super expensive watch, but I’m not going to throw away that watch. So why would I throw away my mouse or keyboard if it’s a fantastic quality, well-designed, software-enabled mouse? The eternal mouse is one of the things we’d like to achieve.
Patel: What made the mouse an eternal mouse?
It was a little heavier, it had great software and services that you were constantly updating, and it was beautiful. So I don’t think we’re necessarily very far from that.
But, again, back to the cost. Sell me the mouse once. Maybe I’ll pay $200.
The business model is obviously the challenge here. So the software is even more important if you think about it. Can you come up with a service model? In our video conferencing business, that is now a very important part of the model, the services, and it is critical for enterprise customers.
Let’s get to this in a second because it makes sense to me. Sell managed services to businesses. Set support contract prices for cameras and whatnot. This is an ongoing need for businesses. I’m still stuck at “Sell me a mouse once and it will have continuous software updates forever.”
Imagine it as your Rolex. You will really love it.
But Rolex is forced to hire computer engineers to send me updates over the air forever.
But the artifact is like your Rolex, and then because we know that the technology that we associate with it changes, it will not be like your Rolex in the sense that it will never have to change. Our stuff will have to change, but will the hardware have to change? I’m not so sure. We will obviously have to fix it and figure out what that business model is. We’re not on the mouse forever today, but I’m intrigued by the thought.
It will definitely help with sustainability. There are two ways that people have traditionally proposed to monetize hardware over time. They are subscription fees and advertising. Is there a third way that I don’t know about that you’re thinking about?
No. The third way is the traditional model of “we innovate and you upgrade.” That’s the current model. And we’re damn good at that model because we have damn good innovators in the company who come up with amazing products.
That’s definitely the current model. It’s not a bad model at all, especially as we continue to design more sustainable products. We continue to recycle and remanufacture products. That’s all good. But that said, I’m intrigued by a forever mouse or video conferencing solution that you just upgrade with software and build a business model around that.
I’ll ask this very directly. Can you imagine a subscription mouse?
Possibly.
And this would be the eternal mouse?
Yes.
Then you pay a subscription for software updates for your mouse.
Yes, and you won’t have to worry about anything anymore, just like with our current video conferencing services.
But it’s a mouse.
But it’s a mouse, yes.
I think consumers might perceive them as very different.
[Laughs] Yes, but it is beautiful. Imagine it as a diamond-studded mouse.
