So, here’s a new thing I’ve noticed lately, customizable wearables, specifically the Xiaomi Mi Band (#MiBand), which is cheap and completely extensible.
This happens to be Ultan’s (@ultan) new fitness band of choice, and coincidentally, Christina’s (@ChrisKolOrcl) as well. Although both are members of Oracle Applications User Experience (@usableapps), neither knew the other was wearing the Mi Band until they read Ultan’s post.
Since, they’ve shared pictures of their custom bands.
Ultan’s Hello Kitty Mi Band.
Christina’s charcoal+red Mi Band.
The Mi Band already comes in a wider array of color options that most fitness bands, and a quick search of Amazon yields many pages of wristband and other non-Xiaomi produced accessories. So, there’s already a market for customizing the $20 device.
And why not, given it’s the price of a nice pedometer with more bells and whistles and a third the cost of the cheapest Fitbit, the Zip, leaving plenty of budget left over for making it yours.
Both Christina and Ultan have been tracking fitness for a long time and as early adopters so I’m ready to declare this a trend, i.e. super-cheap, completely-customizable fitness bands.
Of course, as with anything related to fashion (#fashtech), I’m the last to know. Much like a broken clock, my wardrobe is fashionable every 20 years or so. However, Ultan has been beating the #fashtech drum for a while now, and it seems the time has come to throw off the chains of the dull, black band and embrace color again.
Or something like that. Anyway, find the comments and share your Mi Bands or opinions. Either, both, all good.
Not too sure if Hello Kitty is the harbinger of fashionable tech, but I think the low price of the Xiaomi Mi might represent the harbinger of a wearabletech business model: make the devices free or really cheap (15 bucks?) and use the data….
That said I do think the fashion, or style, or “look” or whatever you want to call it is important. If something looks superfly by default everyone wants it. If it’s ugly, well….
… so why do something *special* in that regard for the enterprise?
Make it beautiful. Or make it invisible.
@Ultan: Yes, of course, business model and approach. Make it cheap and make it easy to customize. So, for the price of its closest competitors, the Mi could have several looks.
Extensibility in action, increasing participation.