What makes this different from typekit? It's quite a bit more expensive ($99 for 250,000 pageviews on cloud.typography vs $49 for 500,000 on typekit) and I'm wondering what extras it provides.
Their typography foundry is held to be second-to-none among typeface quality and frequency of usage in print and elsewhere.
In particular, their typeface Gotham is incredibly popular, and making it available as a webfont publicly is a big deal.
Also, this effort has been underway for at least three years. Their attention to detail ensures that these webfonts are going to be some of the best available anywhere.
H&FJ is practically THE type foundry for original typefaces. They compete on quality rather than price or other tangible benefits. Unfortunately, it's been impossible to license H&FJ type for real web use until now.
The most likely group of people who will use this are type enthusiasts who prefer H&FJ type to the competition's. I can predict there are a lot of designers who will use this service for their personal or business sites.
As a competitive offering, though, this doesn't cut it. Buying individual fonts feels outdated to web font users, and the prices don't match up to Typekit (free with Adobe CC) or Monotype/Linotype ($10/month without a ridiculous 5 font cap).
H&FJ has chosen their business model, and they'd like to avoid the brand dilution of having poorly designed sites overusing their type. It's an interesting choice, and I hope it works out for them.
Prior to launching Cloud Typography, H+FJ didn't sell web fonts at all. Things seemed to have been going pretty well for them.
The pricing advertised on their site appears to contradict you.
They seem to be aiming for the mainstream market rather than exclusivity, yet their prices are uncompetitive by mainstream standards, which seems an odd strategy.
The people who like H&FJ for the quality will subscribe and use this service, while those looking for a commodity option will avoid it -- perhaps even to the benefit of H&FJ.
I know I'll subscribe shortly, which is why I hope this works for their business. It really is an interesting decision when compared to the providers whose offerings keep dropping in price to compete in a commodity market.
This is the first offering that matches the H&FJ to quality. For instance, my favorite font at the moment is Ideal Sans. The concept here is to infuse a sans serif with an almost handlettered quality. There are no straight lines. Consequently it's hard to make it look good for the screen, period, let alone at small sizes. But they've done it.
http://www.typography.com/fonts/ideal-sans/overview/
RandsInRepose.com has been beta testing it and it's gotten notably better over the past year, I think.
Nevertheless, its recent popularity is due to its status as best-legal-webfont-alternative to Gotham - at least, until today.