Re: $35 + Cost of a tablet remote
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@Andy Prough @A Known Coward - >"Isn't the big gotcha the requirement for a device, logically a small tablet, to act as a very expensive remote control?"
I think that's the whole point - we've all got so many smartphones and laptops and tablets laying around the house already... I think my family has about 12 such devices right now (hard to keep track). I've got 4 personally. Might as well give them some way to interact with the TV.
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...but don't families that have 12 smartphones, tablets, and laptops already have a way of consuming that content on the TV (smart TV, Apple TV, WDLive, Roku, HDMI cable from the PC, or something)?
What's the point of the extra dongle? Small market I think. If they'd gone to $50 and included a remote and ability to stream even a limited subset of local files (but less limited than Apple TVs subset) then I think it'd have killed Apple TV pretty much in last place.
As it is, it just increases OS entrenchment - Android owners will buy this, iOS owners will buy Apple TV, and everyone will also *still* have to also buy a WD Live, Roku, Netgear EVA or something like that too.