If you haven’t heard of GOQii yet, then think of a wearable fitness tracker married to a human coach and lifestyle guru. That sounds like a lot more than Nike’s FuelBand can offer, right? The GOQii is Indian entrepreneur, Vishal Gondal’s, pet project. One of the investors in the company is Bollywood actress, Madhuri Dixit-Nene.
The GOQii is basically a glorified fitness band which delivers some helpings of this and that so users are convinced it’s a good buy. We’re not saying that it’s not, we’re just saying all such gadgets can be pretty useless unless wearers are motivated to exercise and live healthy. This particular tracker adds a human touch by connecting users to real fitness as well as lifestyle experts and coaches via the accompanying app.
So when you order the wristband which is being offered at a special discounted price to 1000 Indian residents only, you’re purchasing the hardware as well as time with people trained to assist you with getting into shape. The 12-month bundle which includes the wearable device, application and audio/video calls with a coach, costs Rs 9,999. It’s Rs 5,999 for the 6-month deal. The gadget embeds a motion sensor that records steps taken, distance covered, calories burned and so on.
This data can be passed on to the nutritional expert or coach overseeing the concerned user’s training. One interesting addition to the band is Karma Points. If doing something for the good of others motivates you like nothing else, then you can choose to convert your ‘sweat equity’ (meaning the amount of exercise you’ve done) into donations. It works something like this – a donor registered with GOQii will pay a particular amount to charity for a certain number of calories you’ve burned or something along those lines.
Tempted to try out the GOQii? You can follow this link to order it through the official company website. It will start shipping out in April 2014. Depending on how the test run goes, the gadget may also hit the UK, the US, Singapore and UAE at a later date.