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Re:After Misjudging Market, Bike Maker Vanhawks (YC W16) Has... by rfdub on Friday May 26, 2017 @03:24PM (#14426517)
Misjudged is an understatement. There is no appetite for these over-priced "Connected" bikes. They are essentially taking a $1000 Chinese carbon bike and selling it for $1500 with the extra cost attributed to an integrated, non-upgradeable computer and some sensors, all of which can already be found in any given customer's existing smartphone, which can easily be mounted onto whatever bike the customer wants. I don't get why anyone would take a bicycle, something that has a useful lifespan of potentially decades and integrate it with technology that will become obsolete in less than a couple of years. Just because you can put a computer and sensors in something doesn't mean you should or that anyone will pay for it.
Re:After Misjudging Market, Bike Maker Vanhawks (YC W16) Has... by trhway on Friday May 26, 2017 @04:27PM (#14426887)
>They are essentially taking a $1000 Chinese carbon bike and selling it for $1500 with the extra cost attributed to an integrated, non-upgradeable computer and some sensors, all of which can already be found in any given customer's existing smartphone, which can easily be mounted onto whatever bike the customer wants.

i wonder how such logic would sound in the context of say Microsoft Surface Hub?! well, probably like billion dollar idea :) They sell those $5K TV for $22K like hot cakes.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/12/micro...

Re:After Misjudging Market, Bike Maker Vanhawks (YC W16) Has... by gnopgnip on Friday May 26, 2017 @03:56PM (#14426705)
The same is true for juicero, internet connected refrigerators, and almost everything else connected to the internet. Plenty of people will pay more for things because they are internet connected
Re:After Misjudging Market, Bike Maker Vanhawks (YC W16) Has... by aqme28 on Friday May 26, 2017 @04:02PM (#14426743)
I dont think you want Juicero to be your example of a successful IoT startup.