I saw this in action at our recent Utah Quilt Festival and I was very very impressed.
I too am a long time Cricut owner (have the original and the larger Expression) and have never gotten a decent cut of fabric with it.
If I didn't have $$$invested in cartridges I would try and work out a way to get the Scan N Cut. I loved that you could use die cut images, downloaded images or something you create yourself for example a child's drawing and also once it's been scanned or downloaded in the machine will cut the fabric no matter where it is on the mat!
Ahh well at a show special of $400 it was too rich for me but maybe one day!