The original Withings Wi-Fi scale was kind of cool. It offered adults a chance to carefully monitor their weight using Wi-Fi and apps to incentivise weight loss and weight management. But the new Wi-Fi baby scale that the company has unveiled at CES this year? Is it really the kind of gadget people would spend money on?
As the father of a six-week old baby who was born seven weeks premature, I probably care more about my baby’s weight than the average parent. Especially given she was only discharged from the hospital on Saturday because she had cracked the 2kg mark.
But the idea of spending $US179 for a baby scale seems preposterous. For a start, you’re only looking at about a 12 month lifespan before your child gets too big to fit in the cradle. Then there’s the weight issue – Engadget says that a heavyweight item like a watermelon could break the scale.
There’s the issue of using it enough to make the data recording effective – You’d need to weigh your baby every day at the same time to gather any accurate data, which is nigh on impossible with a new born. And of course there’s the question of why you’d need all that intricate data of your child’s weight gain in the first place. Maybe if your child has a medical condition, but that’s a very small market to be targeting.
But then again, maybe I’m just a little sleep deprived and cynical. New born babies do that to a man…
[Engadget]