Not sure this topic is even still relevant but oh well.
For one I am fairly certain that a large majority of the people saying/voting yes have only the intentions of having one. I would be incredibly surprised were even half of them to actually buy one.
Second there are several flaws to this including size, batteries, and pressure sensitivity that while not really fatal will be a big deal to most people.
Third you stated that the intention was to make it cheaply available to everyone. With this comes at the cost of certain elements in a tablet people want for more than just the purpose of osu!. If you can pay a few more dollars and get one with many more capabilities then you probably will.
Fourth, from what you said the initial investment is large indeed. If the amount of units you'll have to acquire are equally large then you'll have many headaches dealing with holding onto your stock, and let's not even get into the tech support/malfunctioning products part. Without the possibility of profit to aid osu! in some way this will just drag it down rather than help. On top of that, these are not an easy sell really, I don't think the rate of sales on them would be fast.
Fifth there is a lot you have not stated that we need to know to really help in a decision such as how many units and how much of an initial investment it is.
Way I see it from everything is that it's not necessarily the best investment for this situation. Were the company to for instance offer a tricked out for osu! styled tablet that you would simply point users to and for each one purchased you received a sort of finders fee (less than you could get from buying them in bulk and holding the burden but without any burden whatsoever) for selling their tablets for them then I would greatly encourage it as long as the quality held up.
One unlikely possibility to negate the risk would be to have the users actually commit to buying one before you order them. This is highly unlikely to work but it is plausible. Have everyone who really wants one to essentially order a ticket (like a pre-order but paid in full, not just $5 down) from you for the tablet. If you meet the mark for how many you need to get sold to order them by a certain date then go with it, if not return the money and walk away without any loss. But again I can't see people actually willing to commit like this.
Other than that the only suggestion I would have because I personally really like the idea of the osu! tablet as an item would be to follow in the footsteps of game consoles like xbox, wii, ps3. If there is a way you can get for a slightly higher price a much lower stock then you can for instance get let's say 10 25 50 100 depending on the intentions. Deck those tablets out and make em gorgeous, none of that "Oh it has pippi in the corner, that makes it an osu! tablet" bs, deck that thing out. Then make them limited stock/edition (and/or one time only) with a certain way to get them. Could be as simple as simple as purchasing them in the osu! store or perhaps as giveaways to 10 random people that buy supporter during the month or whatever. The point being there are many largely devoted and obsessed users on osu! that would kill for say 1 of 10 ever made osu! tablets and would go to great lengths to get one, as well there are a lot of casual people who would throw a couple bucks for supporter for a chance to get one, but very few who would pay a large sum for something average/sub-par that everyone has.
tl;dr because I already know you won't read all of what I said or probably even half - High risk + low profit = bad investment. You can do better, get a better situation or better price. You hold ALL of the cards in this particular one and lose nothing from walking away. Take advantage of that.
For one I am fairly certain that a large majority of the people saying/voting yes have only the intentions of having one. I would be incredibly surprised were even half of them to actually buy one.
Second there are several flaws to this including size, batteries, and pressure sensitivity that while not really fatal will be a big deal to most people.
Third you stated that the intention was to make it cheaply available to everyone. With this comes at the cost of certain elements in a tablet people want for more than just the purpose of osu!. If you can pay a few more dollars and get one with many more capabilities then you probably will.
Fourth, from what you said the initial investment is large indeed. If the amount of units you'll have to acquire are equally large then you'll have many headaches dealing with holding onto your stock, and let's not even get into the tech support/malfunctioning products part. Without the possibility of profit to aid osu! in some way this will just drag it down rather than help. On top of that, these are not an easy sell really, I don't think the rate of sales on them would be fast.
Fifth there is a lot you have not stated that we need to know to really help in a decision such as how many units and how much of an initial investment it is.
Way I see it from everything is that it's not necessarily the best investment for this situation. Were the company to for instance offer a tricked out for osu! styled tablet that you would simply point users to and for each one purchased you received a sort of finders fee (less than you could get from buying them in bulk and holding the burden but without any burden whatsoever) for selling their tablets for them then I would greatly encourage it as long as the quality held up.
One unlikely possibility to negate the risk would be to have the users actually commit to buying one before you order them. This is highly unlikely to work but it is plausible. Have everyone who really wants one to essentially order a ticket (like a pre-order but paid in full, not just $5 down) from you for the tablet. If you meet the mark for how many you need to get sold to order them by a certain date then go with it, if not return the money and walk away without any loss. But again I can't see people actually willing to commit like this.
Other than that the only suggestion I would have because I personally really like the idea of the osu! tablet as an item would be to follow in the footsteps of game consoles like xbox, wii, ps3. If there is a way you can get for a slightly higher price a much lower stock then you can for instance get let's say 10 25 50 100 depending on the intentions. Deck those tablets out and make em gorgeous, none of that "Oh it has pippi in the corner, that makes it an osu! tablet" bs, deck that thing out. Then make them limited stock/edition (and/or one time only) with a certain way to get them. Could be as simple as simple as purchasing them in the osu! store or perhaps as giveaways to 10 random people that buy supporter during the month or whatever. The point being there are many largely devoted and obsessed users on osu! that would kill for say 1 of 10 ever made osu! tablets and would go to great lengths to get one, as well there are a lot of casual people who would throw a couple bucks for supporter for a chance to get one, but very few who would pay a large sum for something average/sub-par that everyone has.
tl;dr because I already know you won't read all of what I said or probably even half - High risk + low profit = bad investment. You can do better, get a better situation or better price. You hold ALL of the cards in this particular one and lose nothing from walking away. Take advantage of that.
though a specific log of Osu! seem to be splendid :3
