Wht would anyone invest in an expensive non-standard accessory when YEARS of model history pretty much guarantees the main device WILL be intentionally made obsolete within a year or two??
Wait for a standalone lens that transmits via bluetooth.

Iz cool.
We also need a line-of-sight/short range reflection pulsed messaging/voice application/capability. Photon-based pulse coded messages, when the radio frequencies have been jammed.
Someone's going to make serious money from that. You're welcome.

A diabetic can use it to check for hot spots in areas they have lost the sense of feeling giving the several days to a week waring on infection. The same is true for bed sores that would read cold. It might possibly give enough warning to prevent them from developing.
A thermal camera will also spot restrictions in blood flow in time to correct it if the camera is sensitive enough.
For any price under $500 dollars anyone that works with machinery can't afford to be without one. Comparing a picture of the the bearings and other moving parts after they have been running a few hours will show up problems in time to repair them before costly breakdowns. I can think of several time it would have paid for itself in one use.
For example; one afternoon we were harvesting cotton when I heard a bearing start to make noise on the main drive shaft off a cotton stripper. The bearing cost $75 dollars and took 8 hours to change. The stripper were making $500 dollars an hour. If we ran the stripper 10 more hours the repairs would cost $800 dollars and still only take 8 hours. Needless to say I worked all night and spent $800 on parts. Had I had a camera like this I would have worked all night the night before and spent $75 dollars for parts.
Gordon

There is no stand alone lens that can superimpose IR and visual light the way FLIR's patented technology does it. IR radiation is blocked by glass lenses and visual light is blocked by the visually opaque IR lenses. Lens technology has not changed in decades, so don't hold your breath waiting for it.
Having said that, other aspects of the technology have obsoleted themselves over time. 15 years ago this tech would have cost $60,000 and would have weighed 5 pounds. Features will be added with improved phone hardware, and the external gizmos will shrink in size. Perhaps FLIR will break into the smart phone biz some day.
Cost has severely limited the application of this tech. Once it gets into the hands of a few hundred thousand plumbers, appliance repairmen, policemen, doctors, home inspectors, shop owners, etc., and their creative teenaged children, I think the application for this will explode making this one of the most exciting add-ons you can get for a phone.

Well the same res stand alone unit from FLIR retails for about 2-3k. So to be able to get it for under 400 is good value.
As for long term usage and the notion that it will become obsolete, at the end of the day I have my old 3Gs from the early years and it still works just fine. If a business invests in getting a phone to power this thing and a couple of years down the track the phone is no longer current then so what, just shelve it and use it only as required. The 5 and 5s are very capable devices, and unlikely to become computationally obsolete in the next 3-4 yrs if it is used purely for these applications.

I can't see this as being a replacement at this time for energy auditors or those looking for crucial data. Flir has some amazing products that are truly professional grade. However to be able to have what appears to be a "pro-sumer" level product like this for $350 has great potential. At Indow Windows, we manufacturer custom interior thermal inserts for energy efficiency, typically in older homes. While many of our dealers are home performance specialists and have high end equipment, some are not and being able to use this type of equipment at a reasonable cost to show people where they are losing energy around their home without having to be super precise is of great value.

Very useful for debugging lots of things - circuit boards with faulty components, wires carrying too much current in walls, machine tools to see how hot the bit is getting, 3D extrusion prints and printers to see if they are hot in the right places and cooling well enough elsewhere...

Used to work on FLIR night and the day sight on the TOW missile system on ITVs, later on AH -64 Apache and AH -1 Super Cobra. Good thing the technology is moving to the civilian sector. R&D on military hardware always pays off in the end!

check out the MU iphone thermal camera on kick start now almost ready to ship, 100 less and double the resolution a far better deal as this low res model is already obsolete

The consumer-level priced sensor is a pivotal development, and has great potential.
But they are shooting themselves in the leg by putting this breakthrough tech into an attachment for a niche product that only has a minority share of the market and that will be obsolesced in six months.
Yes, I know all this trendy marketing talk about standalone cameras giving way to smartphones, and all that. But in this case, a standalone camera would make much better sense, and avoid making FLIR Inc. into a hostage of another company's planned obsolescence cycle. Not to mention that a standalone could have better tech specs for the same price, and would be snapped up by various kinds of professionals (engineers, outdoor workers, medical personnel) as well as geeks, not just a handful of iPhone airheads on the hunt for another glitzy $500 attachment.
I predict that FLIR Inc. will not be able to keep pace with Apple and all the new iPhone versions, never mind the various Android smartphones out there. They will sell a couple hundred attachments, and fold the moment iPhone6 comes out. A pity, for such a revolutionary product.