Can You Find the Flaw?

The Wall Street Journal just featured the toy that’s sold out in America’s biggest retailers and just topped Amazon’s charts on the busiest shopping day of the year.  It was made by a tech startup that had absolutely no clue how to make a toy.  Nearly a decade ago, the engineers at an obscure Silicon Valley company called Nex began plugging away at an iPhone app that would use artificial intelligence to track basketball shots.

Please do read the full article and think about the fatal flaw in this product design: The Hot New Game Console for this Holiday Season.

After several years, they decided it was time to pivot from software to hardware, convinced investors they weren’t crazy for doing that and came perilously close to running out of money.  The toy they ended up building is a sleek block in pastel colors that sits under the TV and looks like a Rubik’s Cube which essentially tracks people in front of it.

It’s technically a gaming console, but at $249, it’s less expensive than traditional consoles even with the $89 annual subscription. It’s also marketed to people who aren’t in the habit of buying gaming systems: families with young children.  Remember the Nintendo Wii?  It is essentially that without the handheld controllers … it maps the movement using AI.

It even appeals to parents who ordinarily wouldn’t let their kids anywhere near screens. With a camera tracking their motion, users control the Playground not with a hand-held controller but with their own hands and movements. Instead of vegging on the sofa, the users end up bouncing around the living room. As a result, parents actually like that it gives their children a workout.

So far so good … so what’s wrong?  Can you see the fatal flaw? 

It is too easy to knock this idea off with phone software and/or the cameras on a PC, iPad, etc.  Why be in the hardware business if you really don’t need to be. 

Sorry folks at Nex.  Your days are numbered … unless you pivot to the more general market using cell phones, iPads, and even the cameras on PCs.  Your original idea was correct … there is absolutely no reason for one more device in the home.  Yours is no exception … over time.  Don’t become a pet rock!