Bluelounge's Nest iPad stand on display at CES 2011
One of the first things we did on the show floor here at CES today was stop by the Bluelounge booth. The company was showing off its latest product, called the Nest, an iPad stand due to sell for US$14.95 when it arrives in stores later on this year. There are plenty of iPad stands here at CES (and you'll hear about more of them this week), but the Nest's difference is that it doesn't even look like an iPad stand -- it looks more like a little dish with a rubber grip around the outside lip. If you lay your iPad across the top, it will hold in place either horizontally or vertically, or there's also a little tray that pulled out of the back that will hold up the device at a sharper angle.
Since it's just a molded piece of plastic, there's not a lot of customization -- you can't really adjust the angle of the display even if you want to. But the tray still looks good even when your iPad is away, and you can keep keys, coins or anything else in there, so it provides a little functionality rather than just taking up space when you're not using the stand. The price is right, too -- you can buy nicer stands for more money, but for $15, the Nest seems like a good option.
I asked Bluelounge what the reasoning was behind releasing an iPad stand, and they said that they'd seen "a noticeable increase" in sales of their Cool Feet laptop stand as the iPad came out last year, not to mention that everyone around their design offices was using iPads anyway. The Nest does a fine job of holding the iPad up with a clean and simple design.
