NYC-based BodyTrace (founded in 2007) has a mission to revolutionize how people look at weight loss. Over 30% of the U.S. population is obese and according to some recent studies over 75% of U.S. adults will be overweight by the year 2015.
The BodyTrace eScale is a bathroom scale that wirelessly uploads and displays the user's weight at the BodyTrace website. There's a wireless connection so it doesn'y require any software configuration to use. The website’s interface encourages users to share their progress, exercise ideas and recipes to work jointly towards a common goal. Of course one can choose to keep everything private, so one's profile will not be visible to others.
The BodyTrace eScale and the BodyTrace website will be available in September 2009. The BodyTrace eScale will retail for $119; signing up on the BodyTrace website is $19.99 for 3 months' service.
SUMMARY: BodyTrace levers crowdsourcing and the rise in digital home health at the same time. Targeting, as it does, the massive market that is "desire for weight loss," we expect the firm to succeed especially if it rolls out a series of like devices (e.g., blood pressure), all strapped together under a single web interface. For navel-gazers such as triathletes alone this company can likely gain rapid traction; we are increasingly a society that wants to share personal details in real-time.
NOTE: Add us on twitter-- we're www.twitter.com/marketintellnow
