To me, that's no excuse. I have a better idea: sell a regular USB cable for $2, which is what they should cost, and design your OS so computers can talk to each other without having to build gold-plated $40 SuperWindowsTransfer versions of commodity cables. It's outrageous to me that such a product even exists, outrageous that it was $40, and outrageous that Radio Shack, of all places, could not carry a reasonably-priced USB cable. I would have even been ok with a certain price premium; I don't expect a retailer to match Monoprice. But $40 for the only USB cable in the shop? Please.
Uh. That weird USB cable makes possible things which aren't designed into the USB hardware spec. It's the USB equivalent of a null-modem cable on RS232, something which cost quite a lot when purchased over the counter.
Correct. It makes for an interesting product-design case study -- the manufacturer probably thought they were being clever by making an intelligent peripheral look and behave like a 'cable', but the work went unappreciated ("This is just a stupid USB cable. Why are they charging $40 for it?")
