A minor difference between Dash and Cuecat: when the CueCat launched, approximately none percent of magazine ads had CueCat codes. When Dash launched approximately 98% of household consumable items had bar codes.
Yes, if you throw away your box for your granola bars, you might not have the bar code handy, but it was at least there when you bought it in the store.
This totally reminded me of CueCat. Despite CueCat being free, it was commonly sold on ebay because it made the cheapest barcode scanner on market. Amazon dash will end up being similarly awesome for hobbiest to hack on.
CueCat also required proprietary software to be installed on a PC or Mac. It was not a standalone device.
And the industrial design! It was a chintzy elongated white plastic cat, with an IR window across the mouth. And it was finicky as hell to use, compared to a real barcode scanner.
Yes, if you throw away your box for your granola bars, you might not have the bar code handy, but it was at least there when you bought it in the store.