Wearables Week in Review

Evie Ring is finally launching

Movano has announced that its smart ring for women is finally launching, with a save the date announcement for November 20. The smart ring is expected to be a medical device with heart rate and SpO2 tracking, although few other details are available at this time. The ring is positioned as a competitor for Oura, which has pretty much had the smart ring market to itself until this time. But one key difference between the two devices is that Evie is expected to come with no monthly service fee which is appealing. Of course, Oura started out the same way too, and there is no guarantee that Movano will not also add a paid tier of service at a later date.

The Circana Take:

• The smart ring market is relatively small, but growing. As a result, the one-year delay on Evie’s launch may turn out to be a good thing as there is far more awareness of the smart ring category now than there was a year ago.
• With an expected price of $269, the ring is positioned reasonable well against higher end activity trackers and smartwatches.
• The ring does not necessarily need to compete directly against smartwatches. We see an increasing number of consumers wearing both a tracker and a smartwatch (wearing the activity tracker for exercise, and the watch for the remainder of the time). As a result, the Evie ring could be a strong alternative to the activity tracker without having to include all of the core features of a smartwatch.