Google to move in on WHOOP ? Check out the new BAND Patent
Google has filed patents for a WHOOP-like band device. There are a series of images on 91mobile and I’ve shown one that’s indicative of the rest. Clearly, it is a display-free wristband with a heart rate sensor.
This could be seen as encroaching on WHOOP‘s sports space or sitting squarely against Amazon Halo and its place more at the wellness end of the spectrum. WHOOP majors on READINESS-TO-TRAIN whereas HALO comes more from the body composition angle.
Whilst WHOOP really HAS carved out a profitable space with it’s $30/mo subscription service and secured significant funds for future growth, the same can’t be said of Amazon Halo which has also gone down the subscription route but at $4/mo. Of course, Amazon has ALL the financial backing it would ever need.
If Google’s band ever makes it to market, I guess it’s much more likely to go for the mass-market branded as Fitbit once that acquisition is completed. If that does happen then WHOOP may well heave a sigh of relief as yet another company fails to realise how well WHOOP is doing and that the barriers to entry are fairly low.
Must Read: Check out the latest WHOOP Review
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Still do not get why Polar and Garmin do not have something similar. They just need to repackage their top of the range chest straps.
maybe they will next year 😉
Polar just needs to repackage the OH1+ strap, Wahoo needs to repackage their FIT arm strap. admittedly the phyiosology metrics would be harder for wahoo but, as you say, not so hard for polar and garmin who already have much of those metrics on their platforms.
Garmin just needs to organise all the information they already have in a cohesive package, and give proactive insights to the users, instead of hiding stuff in sub-menus. They already have training load, sleep, stress, coffee, water and whatnot, just missing passive HRV. They even have my wife’s period, but I had to change my sex in app to be able to use the widget! 😀