The price is very competitive, getting all the parts + cables and power brick would cost more.

A 1TB enclosed external USB HD from Western Digital costs $60 (see NewEgg, Amazon, or whatever's relevant in your country). This costs $80. So, the extra $20 covers a SD card and a few screws to mount a Raspberry Pi (not included)? Doesn't seem competitive at all.

The kit to compare it to is the PiDrive kit from WD, which costs alone more than our kit WITH case.

A normal external hard drive risks not working with a Pi. This 2.5" USB drive is optimized for low power usage, esp at startup and comes with a cable and charger which powers both the drive and Pi from a single cable.

Obviously, if you are looking for an external USB drive for your computer, this is all not relevant. But if you want to use it with a Pi or a similar board, this kit is far superior.

I wrote that thinking the Pi is included (they wrote "compute board"), but it seems it's just the drive and case.

That's what I did. https://github.com/zelon88/HRCloud2

We use Nextcloud at our company (switched from Owncloud after the split). Will definitely pick up a few of these boxes to replace VMs, so ease of use a big plus.

Thanks a lot! We’re always happy about feedback if you have any. :)

That was my first thought as well. I kept waiting for the magic that never came.

However, if you look at the bottom it states that this case is a reference design, much like the Google phones, intended to be a platform upon which others can build new products.

Work is being done to make it compatible with Raspberry Pi 3. :)

yes, coming later this month.