One of many interesting news items that will be coming out of COMDEX, I'm sure.
What do I think? NRID (hard to get out of the habit of that name) seems to be lining up second and third tier hardware providers -- SecuGen, etc., and this latest company, which I doubt anyone has heard of before. Actually, the strategy makes sense for the companies involved, since it's unlikely that these little partners would find creating their own application as economic as splitting a deal with an application provider. However, as much sense as it makes, it doesn't particularly imply sales, just a product of uncertified and untested quality -- but a product, nonetheless.
A mouse is probably a good home for a biometric scanner, and this is the first one I've seen. On the price, it's not clear yet that we're dealing with an OEM price of as little as $70 or a retail price, or even that the price is for the mouse plus algorithms without the necessary software (i.e., what ESAF is being asked to supply). My best guess is that we are seeing a wholesale price being quoted for the partial product, and the ultimate retail price for this mouse + application will be considerably more than $99 per user. And that end users would clearly feel more comfortable doing business with Compaq than a Mom and Pop biometric company. |
