Indian tech giant BoAT has unveiled its first smart ring, which will bring the form factor a huge new audience.
If you haven't heard of BoAT, the company has boomed in India and offers basic smartwatches for around RS3,000 or less – which is around $30.
The smart ring market has boomed in 2023, with Ultrahuman, Ringconn, and Movano all set to unveil devices. And now BoAT has joined the party.
India has had it rough with smart rings, and market leader Oura doesn’t sell its Ring 3 there.
But BoAT, which has been killing it with budget basic smartwatches in India, has teased its new ring – and it’s far from a basic alternative.
The BoAT ring will feature a ceramic and metal build, 5ATM water resistance, and will pack in a heart rate sensor, SpO2 monitor, and feature sleep tracking and period tracking.
And there will be even more advanced sensors with body temperature tracking and Whoop/Oura style analysis of heart rate variability (HRV).
What's more, it will offer the ability to control certain smart home devices.
There's no word on price or availability yet – and BoAT is likely gauging the reaction before pressing on with the release. But it shows what an important form-factor that smart rings are becoming.
Wareable says:
Given the expense of current-gen smart rings, which tend to sit around the $300 mark, it will be interesting to see how cheaply BoAT can bring this to market.
Smart rings are tough to build thanks to the small form factor, advanced sensors and need for durability and water resistance. So BoAT will have its work cut out.
BoAT's smartwatches are undeniably basic, and made for the Indian developing market – but this strategy has yielded incredible growth, and has nuked the demand for expensive alternatives from Apple, Samsung, and even Huawei. Can it do the same for smart rings?
If BoAT can keep the price under $100, then it will beg the question of when we will see a low-cost smart ring in Western markets.
While we won’t be able to buy this ourselves, we’re watching this one closely.
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James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.