Nobody wants the CueCat
Digital Convergence expected their CueCat scanner device to be revolutionary. Instead, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, nobody seems to want it despite its being free. Aside from more creative uses, its use is declining. I’m not surprised. This is a perfect example of a product that solves a problem that doesn’t need solving. How many times have you seen a URL in a magazine, but didn’t type it in because it was too long? Have you wished you could hook up a special hardware device and install drivers for it to avoid the trouble of typing URLs?
It looks great to marketers, and that’s why they haven’t given up yet. How about a device that we fool the public into installing and give away for free that makes it easier for your advertising to reach customers?
It really sounds good, I’m sure, to those who don’t understand the Internet. They have this concept of customers gleefully scanning Coke cans to avoid the trouble of typing coke.com. Surprise – nobody’s excited. Even if it’s free, nobody wants an extra bit of hardware to install and debug. And then there are the privacy concerns.
On top of all that, it’s ugly and doesn’t even look like a cat. I did obtain one, though, just to file away in my collection of doomed dot-com souvenirs.