While the hardware play is getting saturated as brands try to maintain the affordable pricing of the products in a bid to lure fresh users, Noise, Fire-Boltt and Boat are investing in the software side to differentiate. Co-founder Amit Khatri of Smartwatch market leader Noise told ET there would be a shift in focus from consumer acquisition to retention, and hence innovation both in terms of hardware and insight would play a key role in future launches.
Boat, third placed in the smartwatch rankings, acquired Singapore-based IoT startup, KaHa in May 2022. With its help, Boat has been able to develop its own firmware, its own app stack and algorithms to differentiate the brand.
“Because they (Boat’s competitors) don’t own the entire stack, every time they roll out a new feature, they will need new hardware. We did not think that would be scalable. So, we wanted to build the whole ecosystem rather than only go for the hardware,” said Sameer Mehta, co-founder of Boat. Mehta added that one can only do so much to the design of the watch. Manufacturers can play around with the screen sizes, or the external body, or give it different colours, but that’s the limit.
“The main meat of the industry lies in the backend where, for instance, you can tell users you have not slept well at night, so you shouldn’t do an intense workout today,” he added.
The personal audio brand that entered into smartwatches in 2020 saw its growth slowing in 2022 on account of a higher base in 2021, when it grew at 170% on-year, Mehta said. However, the company is on track to post ₹4,000 crore revenue, with ₹5,500 crore as the target for next year.
