
w
Welcome to TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startup-marketing newsletter. It was inspired by the daily TechCrunch + column from which it got its name. Want this in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here.
Now I’m looking of subscriptions in India from two angles: the consumer market and B2B SaaS. — Anna
From subscriptions to sachets
A recent story by my colleague Jagmeet Singh about a wearables launch caught my eye as neither of the two new smart rings launched in the Indian market which will use a subscription-based model.
Subscriptions are a tough sell for wearables (and hardware in general), because you have to keep paying even as the device ages. That’s still the model the incumbent Oura is moving to, which it argues allows it to keep adding new features. Its user base isn’t happy about the switch, though.
In contrast, BoAt, one of the two companies to launch a smart ring in India, aims for a price tag of less than $80. That’s lower than Oura’s $299 starting price, and it doesn’t include a subscription.