💍 RINGO RING - Expectations

There is a lot going on in the 🌐 world of smart rings 💍. And it seems that every smart ring campaign is super successful. There is one exception.
The 1st campaign of Ringo Ring has been suspended by Kickstarter.

Let's have a look at why this happened, what the progress is and what we can expect from Ringo Ring.

🙅 Suspended!

Even before this happened, there were rumours that Ringo was some kind of scam. While it seems Ringo is not a scam, Kickstarter has suspended the Ringo campaign for "misrepresenting itself or violating the letter or spirit of Kickstarter's rules".

In short, Ringo was suspended because of suspicions that it was simply reselling rings made using eIoT's technology.

The Ringo team's reaction was not surprising:

Many people thought this was the end of the short Ringo story. The Ringo team was not even active on their own Discord server and bots and spammers were using their server to post porn related spam.

But after some time...

🔙 Ringo is back!

Apparently Ringo told Kickstarter that they were adding some extra own expertise to eIoT devices, and they allowed them to run a new campaign:

They still have some technical problems as they have reduced the second version of the ring for now and now only offer one version RINGO PRO.

Originally (in the 1st campaign) they offered two versions:

So what can we expect after these turbulences?

💍 RINGO PRO

You have to temper your enthusiasm, because they promise a lot. Some of the promises are clearly very ambitious.

It seems that Ringo Pro should basically be the result of this equation:

RINGO RING 🟰 "Oura" ➖ Subscription ➕ Touch control ➕ Try to estimate advanced metrics

Let me explain what I mean.

💸 "Oura" ➖ subscription

I think this is pretty clear. No subscription is a clear statement of how to differentiate and take advantage of Oura. And by "Oura" I mean a ring that has similar dimensions and weight and the same approach to charging as well.

🫰Touch control

Ringo is designed to have a small haptic area for touching - to control different things on your phone, such as changing songs, taking photos remotely, browsing web pages and other tasks:

This is not something I personally look for, but I can imagine some situations where it might be useful. I wonder how we can make sure it is not used accidentally.

Btw, I prefer brushing my teeth without scrolling through tiktoks 🙁

This feature is the reason why the Ringo team recommends using your index finger as your Ringo's home station.

🔬 Trying to estimate advanced metrics

I would distinguish between measuring and "tracking" or "estimating". More and more metrics in the field of wearables are estimated. I wonder what the quality will be, especially for metrics like ECG, body composition or hydration status.

So I see this mainly as a marketing statement, but I am prepared to be pleasantly surprised.

📐Sizing and no sizing (kit)

The current portfolio should include Rins sizes 7-13 and the sizes should be basically the same as those used by Oura.

We see a different approach to finding the right size. They do not use a sizing kit, but a sizing tape that is sent to backers after the campaign ends:

📲 Mobile App

As you can already see in App stores, app which is dedicated to be used together with Ringo is AIZO RING. It is not suprising that Aizo is created by eIoT ring

Conclusion

I like the name Ringo, which can also be used in visual design Ring💍. I also like Beatles 😄.

But let's be serious. We don't have enough knowledge to say if there is enough know-how on Ringo side to meet Kickstarter conditon or this is pure OEM business between eIoT and Ringo as customer. But we can say that the price in the Kickstarter campaign is not bad - $199, especially compared to the retail price which should be $498.

While I do not think Ringo is a SCAM, I would be cautious regarding expectations, especially in the area of "advanced" metrics. You should stay also on the ground regarding the EDA, which should be in July.

You can pledge the campaign here 👇, but please, be aware of kickstarter risks 🤨

So, are you going to pledge?