Withings looks to create a new market with smart baby scale
The scale, which features a removable baby basket for weighing babies and a stand for toddlers, will likely go for $150 in mid-2012.
LAS VEGAS--The days of standing on a scale with your baby and then without it and measuring the difference are over--if it's worth spending $150 on an Internet-connected scale built just for your little one.
So hopes Withings, the French design company that introduced a smart baby monitor last year and is unveiling its Smart Baby Scale--coming in the second quarter of 2012--at CES this week. Made for iPod, iPhone, and iPad, the scale is the first to use Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Bluetooth Smart connectivity for tracking the weight of babies and toddlers.
The specs: at 3.3 pounds and just under two feet wide with the baby basket, the scale accommodates up to 55 pounds and is estimated to be for kids up to age 8. (This is clearly not an American company.) It takes 4 AAA batteries and works alongside the free WiScale app for iPod, iPhone, and iPad.
The reps at the Withings booth boast that parents will soon be able to access their child's numbers from any of their connected devices and update them instantly on Facebook or Twitter. And while we humans may be more inclined to broadcast our progeny's weight stats than our own, and tend to be more curious about percentiles when children are young, Withings may be trying to create a niche that doesn't need filling.
At a time when many of us want fewer, better integrated gadgets, a simple baby basket affixed to Withings' WiFi Body Scale for adults might have done the trick.
