Most Anticipated Product of 2008

My most anticipated product of 2008 is the smartpen: Livescribe . I first read about this over at portable gadget. It is due to be out in Q1 of 2008 and is expected to be priced at under $200. Livescribe looks to capture a market where Logitech and others have done poorly. Beyond capturing written text, the Livescribe has a microphone to record audio. It is rumored to hold 100 hours of audio. It uses dot paper, which can be purchased from Livescribe, or printed out at home. There is also a software devolopment kit available which will hopefully create some good 3rd party apps.

On paper, this sounds like the perfect gadget for a university student. To have the audio and the content of a lecture unified, in a digital format would be invaluable. Written notes are synchronized with audio, allowing the audio playback of the moment specific notes were written. This feature could be useful, as listening to whole lectures is pretty boring.

Hopefully, this pen will turn the tides on the underachieving market of smarpens. Livescribe has huge potential in a market where none of the available products have lived up to expectations yet. I have always thought that spartpens would be useful, but the ones that are currently available are not yet satisfactory. Hopefully, Livescribe will fill the void in the smartpen market, thus making it my most anticipated product of 2008.

Here is some related chatter: Official Livescribe Blog, gizmodo, wikipedia.