While browsing the news today I just came up with a couple of articles from serious publications celebrating the release at IFA of one of Philips’ latest innovation: the CushionSpeaker.
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According to Engadget who managed to get a hand on it, “It’s half speaker, half cushion and 100 percent useful. Philips‘ [...] CushionSpeaker laptop stand is designed for the bedridden among us, combining a soft laptop stand with a built-in speaker for amplifying those lap-based movie sessions. Of course, this thing probably won’t do much for heat dispersion, but for those also looking for a personal heater, this thing just might be magical. The integrated speaker connects to one’s laptop via USB, which just might put off netbook owners struggling to get by with just a couple of those very sockets.”
Come on guys, it’s just a laptop cushion! And honestly, its design sucks! It looks so 1999! Okay, okay, maybe you’ll use it, find it cool to watch movies while lying in your bed, but it will eventually end-up in your closet or on eBay in even less time than it took you to make up your mind and purchase it.
To my opinion, I think that a laptop cushion per se should be easily transportable; most of the time I’m sitting in a place where there are no tables is anywhere but at home! So what’s the point here? I think that Philips really do innovative stuff. But this laptop cushion speaker seems more like a distress call saying “hey, we’re lacking innovative ideas at the moment”. I believe that it’s better not to release a crappy product than to do so to give your customers the feeling that you’re always at the forefront of innovation!
Personnaly for that price ($100 USD!) I’d expect to get an inflatable laptop cushion I could also use as a laptop case so I could take it anywhere (with or without the speakers)! Unfortunately most designs I’ve seen are only prototypes or just pieces of art.
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So R&D, why don’t you get to work!
And if you manage to include a built-in lap massaging engine, I’m telling you: you just won a new customer!
In the meantime, I’m going to IKEA to get my own $15 BRÄDA laptop cushion with its handle and mobile phone pocket on the side…
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