Personal tracking devices are fast catching up with the
consumers, whether be it those smart pods attached to your body to determine
the calorie intake, or the wrist, or arm bands that traces out how much
exercise you have got. In this promising segment, a particular set of devices
which monitor liquid intake is fast emerging. Many Startups are vying for this
segment like Vessyl, Jomi smart water bottle Sleeve, the Hug, Ilumi and Blufit
to name a few. Some of the initial prototypes have varying features and the
companies seems to have priced them accordingly.
Features
The basic feature in the segment which all companies seem to
target is to measure the water intake or in effect the water hydration level of
the drinker. An iphone and an Android App to show the hydration levels is also
another points-of-parity feature.
Vessyl is probably the most advanced of the lot, this
product determines which liquid is poured into it and also gives the calorie
consumptions of the same. Thus, if you are drinking too much coffee then the Vessyl
can flag you down before it is too late. Vessyl can detect upto 40 liquids in
the segment. And probably stands out with this additional feature.
Market Opportunity
Fitness tracker segment has boomed to a 100-120 million
dollar industry in the US, gaining majorly over the last two year with only
three companies (FitBit, Jawbone and Nike) claiming almost all of the industry
Share. These activity trackers are configured to access the amount of exercise
done by the user. Docter’s have been professing about proper liquid intake for
quite some time now but the idea to exploit this has caught on with the
industry only recently. The big players have not yet jumped in for now, but
there are some rumors that Apple is trying out a Health based platform which
will enable integration of many such tracker devices with the smartphone in a
seamless way.
None of the Liquid intake trackers are in the market and it
make take another 6 months before you see some of them, thus there is a decent
opportunity but significant risk as well since it is an untested market. Also,
hydration is not an immediate need felt by most consumers, it make take a while
for this product segment to catch up. Fitness freaks will probably be the early
adopters and rolling out a marketing campaign in Gyms and health centers may
work well. Again for the companies to grow they would need to invest more in
advertising to educate the customers.
On the onset, the market segment may generate only a few
million dollars in revenue.
Competition
At the base level, four of the five companies that I have
looked at have similar offerings. They determine the amount of liquid consumed
and analyze it and display the findings on the phone. With no significant
differentiation, the competition may turn out to be tough with the focus being
mainly on the ease of use, design, accuracy and price.
Vessyl has an additional differentiation with its capability
to determine the liquid which is pored into it. This information will be useful
in several health related activities, such as caffeine monitoring, apart from
determining the hydration levels. This capability may soon get replicated by
the other companies as well but as of now Vessyl has an advantage in the
industry segment.
Pricing
Vessyl is priced at a pre-order rate of 99$ and the rest of
the products are in the range of 50-60$. So most of the players are trying to
price at the same level without looking to undercut. Cheap Chinese imitations
may soon follow atleast at the base level if some head way is made by the
current players.
Design
The image shows the different products, a flashy and sleek
design which gives out a brand impression of health consciousness may work out
for now.
Finally, hydration based health products are potentially
testing the markets as of now, whether the time has come for such products or
whether it will remain a small niche with the early adopters remains to be
seen.
