The article makes it sound like this is more an 'opt in through purchase' experiment rather than a serious product launch - perhaps that is to mitigate this particular concern.
I remembering reading somewhere that they might actually test this like they did with Chromebooks (Cr-48) and distribute them to people to get feedback.
Because this won't be valuable until there is serious data that they can statistically infer different things on (like how Google Translate and other services get better over time). It also sounds like (perhaps wishful thinking) that it would be an open experiment, i.e. with open software and APIs for third-person development.
