An internal start-up within Samsung recently introduced The Welt, “The Wellness Belt”, to the international market. This new belt gadget can measure the waist size, the belly’s tension and the person’s steps. It also tracks sitting time and it notices if you have eaten too much.
The belt was already introduced at the CES gadget fair, but is now available for customers via Kickstarter as well. You can view your statistics via the Welt-app and try to improve your previous results. You might already know this kind of idea from the “Belty”. However, this product did not hit the market, because the looks were “hideous” and not “really professional”, according to people.
So how likely is it that people will buy The Welt and will this be a successful product?
Well, the first time I read about this gadget, it made me laugh a bit. I did not have the feeling that this product was going to work in a market, where we already have iPhones, lose weight apps, fitbits, smart watches and so on. You can provide the same information via these different tools, so why does this belt create added value? I was wondering the same thing, so I checked out the Welt video and the Kickstarter website. I got more convinced that this product actually could be successful for gadget-loving-innovative-men for the following reasons:
- The belt looks like a normal belt and actually looks pretty fancy, also with a suit.
- It could help to loose weight and get fitter. For example, among adults in the Netherlands, the proportion of moderately overweight is 36%. This indicates also the need to a gadget that helps activate people to loose weight. (Iamexpat.nl, 2016)
- You can check the data and statistics via an app and in this way track yourself.
- The belt is not that expensive: 99 dollars.
- You have to charge it only one time in 20 days (via a Micro USB)
- Demand is growing, there are already 560 backers on Kickstarter and they still have 28 days to go. The pledged goal to realize this product was 30000 dollar, but they already raised 64485 dollar. (Kickstart.com, 2016)
- It just a really cool gadget to have, because people do not expect (from seeing the belt) that it capable to measure so many thing.
I am convinced that this belt will not attract the mass, but I do think that this technology innovation could be successful enough to hit the market. Overall, because it is a fancy gadget that is not too striking and it is helping men to loose weight in a more men-way. I am really curious about your opinion, so feel free to leave a comment!
Check out the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_CNpPRuZ4s
Sources:
http://www.iamexpat.nl/read-and-discuss/lifestyle/news/4-out-of-10-dutch-people-are-overweight
http://www.nu.nl/gadgets/4317053/slimme-riem-van-samsung-startup-verkrijgbaar-kickstarter.html
I haven’t heard of this product until now, so thanks for bringing this up. I think it is interesting for people that don’t want to wear smart watches and fitness trackers due to personal or professional reasons but still want to be able to track what they are doing. I can imagine that some people spend a lot of money for traditional watches and they don’t want to replace them with a smart watch. Thus, the belt would be the perfect option for them.
Also, for some functions, wearables are a better fit than just smartphones. For example, if you’re working in an office environment and your phone is on your desk but you still want a reminder to stand up for one minute every hour. That’s something that the belt could track whereas the phone can’t, if you don’t have it in your pocket all the time.
This blog immediately got my attention as I had not yet heard about the Welt – I am assuming more people will hear about it through your blog. My first thought was that I personally would not wear it, as I never wear belts myself, and I do not use any fitness or weight loss apps. However, for people that do wear belts, and/or for people who wish to track their body weight / get fitter, it seems like a suitable and easy solution. Given the reasons you mentioned as well, I do believe that the Welt has potential to become a used and known product. If you look at the innovation adoption curve, I definitely believe the Welt will be a success with the innovators and early adopters, and perhaps even the early majority.
Thanks for the post! I’ve not heard about Welt before and this was really interesting to read. Similar to Ananda, I personally would also not wear it because I don’t wear belts often enough. But I did think it would be a great gift for the men in my life. It looks good and I especially like the feature that it notices if you’ve eaten too much. During extremely stressful moments, some of us binge-eat without actually noticing how much food we are putting in, and if the Welt can you tell you pretty accurately how much you’ve eaten and if it is too much, it would be very useful. Perhaps if this takes off, they can innovate and create something for non-belt-wearers.
Thank you Hendrik, Ananda and Faustina for your elaborate replies. I completely agree and also think that this gadget will atrract more men than women. Curious how this will develop!