We don’t see innovation in the world of computer peripherals that often. The concept of mouse and keyboard is almost as old as the computer itself and next to some ergonomic improvements, not much changed since we saw the first devices a couple of decades ago.
Innovating computer mice
The team at Tmouse Design wants to transform their ideas into a real product, and for that, they launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. What’s different about the Tmouse2? It combines trackpad and physical buttons in the front of the mouse, letting you control your computer without actually moving the mouse.
This design is said to be ergonomically advanced and was designed with the aim to reduce fatigue as a top priority. And yet, I can’t imagine someone could do their work for eight hours in this position. It could work similar to trackball mice, which were really popular for some in the past, but it just doesn’t look as comfortable. I’d recommend everybody to try this product out anyhow before they buy it.
Warning indicators
If you do a quick research for this company or product, it gets a little fishy. You won’t find a website for the business and you won’t find background information on the team. Also, some people commented that there was a Tmouse1 that was just a scam and never built or delivered. Checking into their first campaign on Kickstarter, there are still many angry comments from people who never received their Tmouse1 until now. Some others received the item, but complain about it not working (well).
Checking into the Tmouse2 campaign, it seems like a low goal trying to get the funding of $10k as a flexible goal. This seems too low to stage a full manufacturing lifecycle and support the sale of the product. Setting up flexible goals means that the project will definitely get all submitted funds from backers, no matter how successful the crowdfunding is. They might end up not being able to deliver, or deliver products with lack of features or quality and they will still be able to keep the funding.
Their campaign video was uploaded to YouTube by an agency with the channel name “Knowell”. This agency also appears to have no website but can be found on Facebook. Their name seems to be the short version of “Know Crowdfunding Well” and the logo features Chinese characters but the actual location of the agency is unclear as of now. Tmouse Design claims to be from Los Angeles, US, but there is no evidence for that being the case.
Summary
I understand how crowdfunding without equity works. You give the company some money, and often they give you an early product version in exchange. This allows young companies to realize their vision without taking a lot of risk by asking banks for a credit before they engage in production and marketing. Often this works out, but I think the backers should be careful, who they pledge money to and under what conditions. If you can’t find any website of a company, this is often an indicator for a scam. If there were previous crowdfunding campaigns on other platforms and the comments are all mad and upset, this also increases the risk.
Taking all that into account, I still hope that this company will keep their promise and will do their best to deliver a good product to their backers. To the backers of both campaigns. Also, I hope that it will feel good to use the mouse and that it’s not just a different kind of muscle strain because it really doesn’t look to be comfortable to use for any type of work and probably not for gaming. In my opinion, they should stage a proper explanation on what was going on in the past and what is planned to happen now. The people who back young companies deserve some transparency. What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts below in the comments!
YouTube: Tmouse2 – Reveals the Future of the Mouse
Story pitched by news scout Pupu Liang.
Thanks for that!
Photo credit: Tmouse Design
