Swedeee (Code Name) - The Emotional Connection
Main Hypothesis: People will use a new form of communication that is felt through the skin via vibrations and is visible through eyes via emoticons. Initially, Swedee will focus on the three most popular emotions currently communicated through SMS and other messaging services. These are: “I love you”, “missing you”, and “kiss”. In short, these three basic emotions will be called LMK from here on.
1st Prototype which is due November 15, 2013 (confirmed with Bogdan) should take any casing (Industrial Design not important at this stage) that can be wrapped around the wrist and use discrete electronic parts (mainly: vibration motor, BLE chip, LED display, memory/ARM M0, battery). Let’s say a user “A” is wearing the bracelet. User “B” sends A an SMS/Line/WeChat/WhatsApp with any of the LMK emoticons then A “feels” L, M, and K through three different vibration patterns and the corresponding emoticon lights up using the LED pattern on the bracelet. The communication between the bracelet and phone is using BLE. A presses the button on the Swedee and the same message is sent back to B. For example, if A gets a message that means I love you then pressing a button on Swedee should generate a message “I love you too” that is sent back to B. Swedee only has one button.
2nd Prototype which is due November 30 (to be confirmed with Bogdan) should come with Swedee’s own App for Android and iOS (very very basic at this stage). Let’s say a user “A” is wearing the bracelet. User “B” sends A a message on the Swedee app with any of the LMK emoticons then A “feels” L, M, and K through three different vibration patterns and the corresponding emoticon light up using the LED pattern on the bracelet. The communication between the phone and the bracelet is using BLE. A presses the button on the Swedee and the same message is sent back to B. For example, if A gets a message that means I love you then pressing a button on Swedee should generate a message “I love you too” that is sent back to B. Swedee only has one button. Push notifications are enabled on the app so the app does not have to running in the background to receive the notifications.
A long press (3-5 seconds) should silence the Swedeee i.e. no vibration or emoticon display.
Sending an emoticon happens from the App and the reception is on Swedeee. Response to the emoticon is also from Swedee.
App Features (prototype timing to be discussed with Bogdan):
Expected learnings from 1st and 2nd Prototype:
1. Does the technology work as we envision (how does the vibration feel on the skin, flawless BLE communication between the Swedee and the phone, is it possible to use Wechat/Line/WhatsApp APIs, etc.)
2. Using the battery similar (in size and weight) to the one used in Nike+ plus fuelband, what is the battery life we can achieve for Swedee? I am assuming that for the 1st prototype, Swedee BLE is operating in “advertising mode” i.e. very low battery life. And for the 2nd prototype, the default mode for the Swedee is sleep. It is only woken up when the phone (app) paired with the Swedee gets an LMK message i.e. long battery life
3. Bill of Materials in low and high volumes
4. Charging time for the battery
5. Number of LEDs required to create various emoticons. How many colors? Cost variation with colors
6. Enough data to make a decision between Swedee App vs. using other apps
7. Industrial design constraints
8. Basic idea of product development timeline
Business Model (to be discussed)
Sell the bracelet at cost. Get it on hundreds of millions of wrists. Let people create their own emoticons/stickers and we sell them for $1.99. Please note that iOS7 allows you to create your own vibration pattern. Whenever I say emoticon, it includes vibration. $0.60 will be kept by the App Store. Give $0.20 to the creator of the emoticon (iMode model) . Swedee keeps $1.19 for every emoticon sold. The assumption is that people will by $1.99 for emoticon because it is displayed on the wrist and it vibrates.
Assuming the BOM is $10 (it could be a multiple of that depending on the cost of display). With distribution/marketing cost and no margin, let’s say we sell it for $20.
Let’s assume that the life of the bracelet is one year. The wearer (not a non Swedeee owner can create and buy emoticons as well).
Let’s assume that per Swedee minimum one new emoticon is bought per week.
Cost per Swedee= $20
Net Revenue (after paying off Apple/Google and emoticon creator) per Swedee = $1.19 x 52 = $61.88
Margin = $61.88 - $20 = $41.88
TBD in future prototypes and discussions:
1. Business model: Sell new emoticons? Text?
2. Make money on hardware?
3. Distribution?
4. Is it possible to give Swedee away for free?
5. Industrial design: sizes? colors? Unisex?
6. Go To Market strategy