16 ms·

Amulyte (YC S13) is Building a Better Lifeline For Seniors on the Move

79 points by jacalulu 13y ago

callmeed 13y ago
Seems like a smart move considering 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 every day. Hopefully they're in it for the long haul. It will be interesting to see what the marketing strategy will be.
davmar 13y ago
I really like what these guys are building. Real market, real need, real customers. Great approach to solving the problem too. I'd definitely bet on this type of product being the future of senior monitoring.
wesley 13y ago
Sounded good, until I heard about the monthly fee. I don't think this will go very far, as there are probably other companies going after this market without any extra fees. Also, the battery life needs to be at least a month.
jusben1369 13y ago
Firstly it's just great to see someone from YC targeting anyone over 24 :) Ok, snarky joke is over. I think this is a great idea. I see 3 challenges. i) Seniors tend to be more frugal than the younger generation so $30 per month might be a dealbreaker. Having said that children would probably pay that to know their parent is safe so maybe that's the better angle. ii) Superseded by a smart phone based app. No need for $99 for the device and $30 in a subscription. Will someone do 85% of this for an iPhone/Android device at $5 per month?
- wesley 13y ago
  What's the third challenge? :-)
  - jusben1369 13y ago
    I feel down and couldn't get up to type the last one.
- jacalulu 13y ago
  Great points, both of which we have put much thought into: i) our target customer is actually the daughter or daughter-in-law of the device user. They are almost always the ones who make decisions to get a system similar to Amulyte, and they are the ones that typically end up covering the cost for their elder relative. ii) we considered coming out with an app, but after talking to a lot of industry experts we verified what we had suspected - seniors simply don't use smartphones. There definitely are some that do, but the majority of them do not. Even those who have one rarely use it (it isn't uncommon for them to turn it off when they aren't using it or leave it somewhere, unused, for extended periods of time). Getting the right form factor is an important implementation consideration, and a cell phone isn't suited for this user.
  - jusben1369 13y ago
    Got it. I figured you guys would have done deeper research. the flip side of your wireless device research is there might be a partnership opportunity with wireless manufacturers or networks as I agree you'd drive more adoption and usage of their devices.
tghw 13y ago
It would seem a much simpler solution would be feasible. A small GSM device that is essentially powered off until it is needed, at which time it would be booted up and begin sending GPS coordinates via SMS. If you wanted higher reliability, you could look into the FM-based system that LoJack uses, but either way, constant communication seems unnecessary.
- wesley 13y ago
  Is there anything like this out there already? With good battery life.
  - robg 13y ago
    They use base stations. Here's one: http://www.qmedichealth.com/ http://www.qmedichealth.com/
- jacalulu 13y ago
  Great points, this is something that we have given a lot of thought towards. We are going to be pinging the device at certain points (when someone logs into the portal for example), and the device will also send data at set intervals (we can adjust how often we send data to save battery life, and based on a few other things). When the device is not actively sending data or establishing a connected we do sleep the device. We opted not to send GPS location via SMS because it is a lot less secure. We are also sending more than just GPS data, all of which we would have to interpret on the server side anyways thus complicating the implementation. We looked into this and for a variety of reasons it made more sense to use data to transmit information from the device.
  - tghw 13y ago
    Doesn't that place a pretty large assumption on good data coverage? I live in Denver, which generally has good coverage, but my last place was in a total dead zone and I had to get a microcell device to be able to use the phone indoors. SMS almost always got through, OTOH.
kyro 13y ago
I'm super-impressed and really happy to see this recent batch of YC companies tackling some very underserved and unsexy problems. While Amulyte is not a new idea, I do think their product is a much-needed improvement on what's existed for some time. But will that improvement be enough for it to be a widely adopted product? I don't think so. Products offering similar solutions have been around with moderate levels of success, and neither seniors nor their caretakers are technologically savvy enough to see an accelerometer or self-quantification as selling points. And while selling to nursing homes might seem a good idea, they're already relatively well-monitored settings that account for only 20% of deaths due to falls in people ages 65yo+ [0]. I think this is mostly a marketing issue, and an interesting one. This is a morbid product. Buying it acknowledges to some degree that you're old, and on your way out. It's not like life insurance where you buy it once and don't think about it. Nor is it like taking medications that are contributing to your health. A product like this serves as a constant reminder of your fragility while not providing any immediately obvious benefit. Imagine putting it around your neck every day. Beyond the inherent psychological barriers that a product of this nature can create, marketing for this type of solution just hasn't seemed to help. Life Alert, a wear-around-your-neck monitor for the elderly that's been around for a long time, has been known for its "I've fallen and I can't get up!" campaign [1]. What elderly person or caregiver would ever want to relate to someone in that commercial? I don't know what the answer to that problem is yet. How do you get people to acknowledge the eventual death of their beloved elderly and push them to be proactive in taking preventative measures without using scare tactics? I'm not sure, but coincidentally, I finally got to reading the article Slow Ideas by Atul Gawande [2] this morning that touches on similar problems -- problems that are insidious and have no immediate solution. He seems to strengthen PG's points on doing things that don't scale [3]. In particular, he talks about how marketing efforts, efforts that scaled, in India to combat cholera were unsuccessful, and how opting for the door-to-door method resulted in significant drops in mortality. The message of the article was that these problems require more than just slick ads and pamphlets. They require changing the norms, changing the way people perceive these problems. And from his experience, the most efficient and successful way of doing that is to do things that do not scale. Maybe that's the answer. A product like this isn't just a shiny new toy someone orders from Amazon, or backs on Kickstarter. This touches on some very deep problems in our society and its views on preventative health, mostly that we don't take it seriously. I think a company like Amulyte should really focus its efforts on creating an effective marketing strategy. They may have the most advanced monitor in the world, but that won't tear down many of the barriers that exist for this type of product. And if they can crack that marketing problem, then there's a lot more success out there to be had. Some food for thought, Amulyte guys. Good luck! I'll definitely be watching closely. [0] http://www.cdc.gov/HomeandRecreationalSafety/Falls/nursing.html http://www.cdc.gov/HomeandRecreationalSafety/Falls/nursing.h... [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQlpDiXPZHQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQlpDiXPZHQ [2] http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/07/29/130729fa_fact_gawande http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/07/29/130729fa_fact_... [3] http://paulgraham.com/ds.html http://paulgraham.com/ds.html
robg 13y ago
I worry about the battery life here. Other devices can last much longer by using those base stations. And in this population, what happens if they forget to charge once a week?
- dataminer 13y ago
  To get around this issue they can build an alarm which starts sounding when the battery is getting low. Another feature would be to send a notification to the care giver to charge the battery. The third fail safe would be to alert care giver if there is no communication with the device.
  - jacalulu 13y ago
    Couldn't have said this better myself, this is exactly what we are doing :) We are also conscious of making sure that charging the device becomes part of a seniors daily routine to help ensure that it remains charged. We are also using induction charging to make charging the device as simple as placing it on its holder (no micro USB to fiddle around with)
    - robg 13y ago
      In my experience in working with seniors, I still worry that very long battery life is a competitive advantage. The category of seniors for whom this device is almost a necessity starts to significantly overlap with the category of seniors with some form of dementia or physical ailments that make regular charging more challenging. Good luck!
    - MartinCron 13y ago
      The daily routine is probably key, you'll get better compliance with something that is done daily than something that can (in theory) be done weekly, even if the batteries could last that long.
      - robg 13y ago
        We take this approach with our biowatch, but it's a different demographic that also charges a smartphone every night. With seniors, I worry that it comes off to charge it may not go back on. And the loss of faculties related falls starts to correlate with loss of memory and further dementia. That said, they are honing in on the user experience at nursing homes. Independent living facilities offer a slightly different demographic and likely closer to their goal. Worst case, the device is sending low battery pings, and that itself is an opportunity for children to check in.
elmarschraml 13y ago
This is the best kind of startup - targeting an important problem whose current solutions are outdated and not very good. There are LOTS of seniors already using such a product (usually ordered by their concerned family), and a low monthly fee is not an issue when your loved ones's life is at stake. The existing solutions are basically a DECT cordless phone with a one-button 911 call. Marketing something like amulyte should be a slam-dunk. Of course you're not gonna sell "it has GPS and an accelerometer" - you market "it will notice when you fall, it will automatically call for help, even if should be unconscious, and even tell people where exactly you are".
- jacalulu 13y ago
  Great point - the marketing for this device is going to sound quite a bit different based on the audience that we are reaching out to. For the TechCrunch crowd, we can say things like "a micro-controller to keep all those bits running in harmony"...definitely not something we would be telling our end-user :)
opminion 13y ago
In some European countries panic buttons for the elderly are provided by public health organisations. Perhaps Amulyte could target those organisations, aside from marketing to individuals.
gngeal 13y ago
Sound almost like A. C. Clarke's CORA (http://www.e-book2u.org/sf/Clarke08/30298.html http://www.e-book2u.org/sf/Clarke08/30298.html): "THIS IS A CORA ALERT. WILL ANYONE WITHIN RANGE OF MY VOICE PLEASE COME IMMEDIATELY. THIS IS A CORA ALERT. WILL ANYONE WITHIN RANGE OF MY VOICE PLEASE COME IMMEDIATELY." Another piece of past future come true?
idank 13y ago
It's marketed as a device for the elderly but another segment that could benefit from this are disabled people living alone. When I left my parents house, I looked for something like this to use in case of an emergency. One option was to pay a monthly fee for a similar device, that upon activation makes someone call you and if you don't pick up they send an ambulance or call someone. In the end I went for a wrist-watch like device that hooks itself to the house alarm and dials a predefined number when you press it. It obviously only works when I'm at home but that was enough for me and it doesn't include a monthly fee.
- jacalulu 13y ago
  The option to expand into other markets is something that we are always considering. We've chosen to target seniors right now, but we definitely have other markets in mind for which this device might be useful (individuals with cognitive impairments is one of them).
micahroberson 13y ago
What are the dimensions? Although this product isn't intended to make a fashion statement, the elderly may still be averse to carrying/wearing around something rather bulky. Especially if they're having trouble admitting to their fragile state.
- jacalulu 13y ago
  Size is definitely something we are incredibly conscious of. This device will be 40mm x 40m x 17mm, but we are always working on trying to get it to be smaller. We want this device to look great, and we are approaching it as if it almost were a fashion statement, or at least an accessory that a senior will wear.
jzwinck 13y ago
$30/month is too much for this to get Wal-Mart traction (which is what it needs, because not even the daughters of seniors buy FitBits online). Seniors often live on what they call "fixed income" which is a euphemism for government aid, pensions (which are diminishing), etc. A new expense cannot be covered by working harder or smarter. A $30/month new expense is exactly why lots of seniors do not have smartphones (ironic then that Amulyte folks say they considered making a phone app but not enough of the audience have smartphones, then made a device that costs the same as a smartphone data plan). Consider that the Kindle 3G comes with free cellular service. The hardware is in the same price ballpark, so why does Kindle let me download entire books for free, but Amulyte charges me $30/month to publish tiny updates that I hope I don't need? Also consider the SPOT satellite messenger. It costs $150 plus $150 per year, which is much cheaper than Amulyte. The main downside for this application is that it does not work indoors--but the SPOT folks could add GSM capability and then their device seems almost universally better (the one exception being ergonomics for seniors). Finally, ergonomics. Amulyte can't be too large, or it will be a constant dangling reminder of dying. And it obviously shouldn't be black in color--if not because black implies death then because new little black electronic widgets are really confusing and scary to old people. Round and light-colored would make a difference for some of the target audience.
- jacalulu 13y ago
  Thanks for the feedback, you bring up some valid points that we have definitely thought through. First, the expense associated with the device is comparable to what is currently on the market (in some cases it is actually less expensive than the competition). We realize that not everyone will be able to afford devices like this, which is why we also want to explore ways to get this subsidized. We believe that a device like this can allow seniors to live independently for longer, thus allowing them to remain in their own homes longer, and saving them on the cost of retirement and nursing homes (not to mention studies show that 90%+ of seniors want to remain living in their own homes for as long as possible). Down the road we may even explore offering a less expensive version of this if that becomes possible on our end (we still need to cover manufacturing costs and overhead). You bring up a few other examples, but none of them are exactly comparable. First, the Kindle makes its profits off the books you do buy (they may offer some for free, but the profit comes from the business model in which users do still pay for books on their device). Second, you bring up SPOT then add that it doesn't actually work the way we do. The added functionality does come at an additional cost on our end. We are also spending more on getting a smaller form factor (this means a lot more work on the hardware engineering side), and we are creating a custom dock so that the pendant can be easily recharged without needing to fidget with a micro USB. In terms of ergonomics, the device will measure approximately 40mm x 40mm, which is comparable to current devices on the market with a limited set of features. We are continuously trying to engineer the device to be smaller, and over time we will be able to, but this does incur larger upfront costs and a longer period of time. So right now, we are focusing on making the best device possible, and will continue to iterate and improve on it as components get better and better :) As for the black - it tested rather well with males (although my preference, and that of a lot of the female seniors we showed the designs to, did prefer the lighter coloured device).

79 points by jacalulu 13y ago

Seems like a smart move considering 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 every day. Hopefully they're in it for the long haul. It will be interesting to see what the marketing strategy will be.

davmar 13y ago

I really like what these guys are building. Real market, real need, real customers. Great approach to solving the problem too. I'd definitely bet on this type of product being the future of senior monitoring.

wesley 13y ago

Sounded good, until I heard about the monthly fee. I don't think this will go very far, as there are probably other companies going after this market without any extra fees. Also, the battery life needs to be at least a month.

jusben1369 13y ago

Firstly it's just great to see someone from YC targeting anyone over 24 :) Ok, snarky joke is over. I think this is a great idea. I see 3 challenges. i) Seniors tend to be more frugal than the younger generation so $30 per month might be a dealbreaker. Having said that children would probably pay that to know their parent is safe so maybe that's the better angle. ii) Superseded by a smart phone based app. No need for $99 for the device and $30 in a subscription. Will someone do 85% of this for an iPhone/Android device at $5 per month?

wesley 13y ago
What's the third challenge? :-)
- jusben1369 13y ago
  I feel down and couldn't get up to type the last one.
jacalulu 13y ago
Great points, both of which we have put much thought into: i) our target customer is actually the daughter or daughter-in-law of the device user. They are almost always the ones who make decisions to get a system similar to Amulyte, and they are the ones that typically end up covering the cost for their elder relative. ii) we considered coming out with an app, but after talking to a lot of industry experts we verified what we had suspected - seniors simply don't use smartphones. There definitely are some that do, but the majority of them do not. Even those who have one rarely use it (it isn't uncommon for them to turn it off when they aren't using it or leave it somewhere, unused, for extended periods of time). Getting the right form factor is an important implementation consideration, and a cell phone isn't suited for this user.
- jusben1369 13y ago
  Got it. I figured you guys would have done deeper research. the flip side of your wireless device research is there might be a partnership opportunity with wireless manufacturers or networks as I agree you'd drive more adoption and usage of their devices.

tghw 13y ago

It would seem a much simpler solution would be feasible. A small GSM device that is essentially powered off until it is needed, at which time it would be booted up and begin sending GPS coordinates via SMS. If you wanted higher reliability, you could look into the FM-based system that LoJack uses, but either way, constant communication seems unnecessary.

wesley 13y ago
Is there anything like this out there already? With good battery life.
- robg 13y ago
  They use base stations. Here's one: http://www.qmedichealth.com/ http://www.qmedichealth.com/
jacalulu 13y ago
Great points, this is something that we have given a lot of thought towards. We are going to be pinging the device at certain points (when someone logs into the portal for example), and the device will also send data at set intervals (we can adjust how often we send data to save battery life, and based on a few other things). When the device is not actively sending data or establishing a connected we do sleep the device. We opted not to send GPS location via SMS because it is a lot less secure. We are also sending more than just GPS data, all of which we would have to interpret on the server side anyways thus complicating the implementation. We looked into this and for a variety of reasons it made more sense to use data to transmit information from the device.
- tghw 13y ago
  Doesn't that place a pretty large assumption on good data coverage? I live in Denver, which generally has good coverage, but my last place was in a total dead zone and I had to get a microcell device to be able to use the phone indoors. SMS almost always got through, OTOH.

kyro 13y ago

I'm super-impressed and really happy to see this recent batch of YC companies tackling some very underserved and unsexy problems. While Amulyte is not a new idea, I do think their product is a much-needed improvement on what's existed for some time. But will that improvement be enough for it to be a widely adopted product? I don't think so. Products offering similar solutions have been around with moderate levels of success, and neither seniors nor their caretakers are technologically savvy enough to see an accelerometer or self-quantification as selling points. And while selling to nursing homes might seem a good idea, they're already relatively well-monitored settings that account for only 20% of deaths due to falls in people ages 65yo+ [0]. I think this is mostly a marketing issue, and an interesting one. This is a morbid product. Buying it acknowledges to some degree that you're old, and on your way out. It's not like life insurance where you buy it once and don't think about it. Nor is it like taking medications that are contributing to your health. A product like this serves as a constant reminder of your fragility while not providing any immediately obvious benefit. Imagine putting it around your neck every day. Beyond the inherent psychological barriers that a product of this nature can create, marketing for this type of solution just hasn't seemed to help. Life Alert, a wear-around-your-neck monitor for the elderly that's been around for a long time, has been known for its "I've fallen and I can't get up!" campaign [1]. What elderly person or caregiver would ever want to relate to someone in that commercial? I don't know what the answer to that problem is yet. How do you get people to acknowledge the eventual death of their beloved elderly and push them to be proactive in taking preventative measures without using scare tactics? I'm not sure, but coincidentally, I finally got to reading the article Slow Ideas by Atul Gawande [2] this morning that touches on similar problems -- problems that are insidious and have no immediate solution. He seems to strengthen PG's points on doing things that don't scale [3]. In particular, he talks about how marketing efforts, efforts that scaled, in India to combat cholera were unsuccessful, and how opting for the door-to-door method resulted in significant drops in mortality. The message of the article was that these problems require more than just slick ads and pamphlets. They require changing the norms, changing the way people perceive these problems. And from his experience, the most efficient and successful way of doing that is to do things that do not scale. Maybe that's the answer. A product like this isn't just a shiny new toy someone orders from Amazon, or backs on Kickstarter. This touches on some very deep problems in our society and its views on preventative health, mostly that we don't take it seriously. I think a company like Amulyte should really focus its efforts on creating an effective marketing strategy. They may have the most advanced monitor in the world, but that won't tear down many of the barriers that exist for this type of product. And if they can crack that marketing problem, then there's a lot more success out there to be had. Some food for thought, Amulyte guys. Good luck! I'll definitely be watching closely. [0] http://www.cdc.gov/HomeandRecreationalSafety/Falls/nursing.html http://www.cdc.gov/HomeandRecreationalSafety/Falls/nursing.h... [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQlpDiXPZHQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQlpDiXPZHQ [2] http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/07/29/130729fa_fact_gawande http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/07/29/130729fa_fact_... [3] http://paulgraham.com/ds.html http://paulgraham.com/ds.html

robg 13y ago

I worry about the battery life here. Other devices can last much longer by using those base stations. And in this population, what happens if they forget to charge once a week?

dataminer 13y ago
To get around this issue they can build an alarm which starts sounding when the battery is getting low. Another feature would be to send a notification to the care giver to charge the battery. The third fail safe would be to alert care giver if there is no communication with the device.
- jacalulu 13y ago
  Couldn't have said this better myself, this is exactly what we are doing :) We are also conscious of making sure that charging the device becomes part of a seniors daily routine to help ensure that it remains charged. We are also using induction charging to make charging the device as simple as placing it on its holder (no micro USB to fiddle around with)
  - robg 13y ago
    In my experience in working with seniors, I still worry that very long battery life is a competitive advantage. The category of seniors for whom this device is almost a necessity starts to significantly overlap with the category of seniors with some form of dementia or physical ailments that make regular charging more challenging. Good luck!
  - MartinCron 13y ago
    The daily routine is probably key, you'll get better compliance with something that is done daily than something that can (in theory) be done weekly, even if the batteries could last that long.
    - robg 13y ago
      We take this approach with our biowatch, but it's a different demographic that also charges a smartphone every night. With seniors, I worry that it comes off to charge it may not go back on. And the loss of faculties related falls starts to correlate with loss of memory and further dementia. That said, they are honing in on the user experience at nursing homes. Independent living facilities offer a slightly different demographic and likely closer to their goal. Worst case, the device is sending low battery pings, and that itself is an opportunity for children to check in.

elmarschraml 13y ago

This is the best kind of startup - targeting an important problem whose current solutions are outdated and not very good. There are LOTS of seniors already using such a product (usually ordered by their concerned family), and a low monthly fee is not an issue when your loved ones's life is at stake. The existing solutions are basically a DECT cordless phone with a one-button 911 call. Marketing something like amulyte should be a slam-dunk. Of course you're not gonna sell "it has GPS and an accelerometer" - you market "it will notice when you fall, it will automatically call for help, even if should be unconscious, and even tell people where exactly you are".

jacalulu 13y ago
Great point - the marketing for this device is going to sound quite a bit different based on the audience that we are reaching out to. For the TechCrunch crowd, we can say things like "a micro-controller to keep all those bits running in harmony"...definitely not something we would be telling our end-user :)

opminion 13y ago

In some European countries panic buttons for the elderly are provided by public health organisations. Perhaps Amulyte could target those organisations, aside from marketing to individuals.

gngeal 13y ago

Sound almost like A. C. Clarke's CORA (http://www.e-book2u.org/sf/Clarke08/30298.html http://www.e-book2u.org/sf/Clarke08/30298.html): "THIS IS A CORA ALERT. WILL ANYONE WITHIN RANGE OF MY VOICE PLEASE COME IMMEDIATELY. THIS IS A CORA ALERT. WILL ANYONE WITHIN RANGE OF MY VOICE PLEASE COME IMMEDIATELY." Another piece of past future come true?

idank 13y ago

It's marketed as a device for the elderly but another segment that could benefit from this are disabled people living alone. When I left my parents house, I looked for something like this to use in case of an emergency. One option was to pay a monthly fee for a similar device, that upon activation makes someone call you and if you don't pick up they send an ambulance or call someone. In the end I went for a wrist-watch like device that hooks itself to the house alarm and dials a predefined number when you press it. It obviously only works when I'm at home but that was enough for me and it doesn't include a monthly fee.

jacalulu 13y ago
The option to expand into other markets is something that we are always considering. We've chosen to target seniors right now, but we definitely have other markets in mind for which this device might be useful (individuals with cognitive impairments is one of them).

micahroberson 13y ago

What are the dimensions? Although this product isn't intended to make a fashion statement, the elderly may still be averse to carrying/wearing around something rather bulky. Especially if they're having trouble admitting to their fragile state.

jacalulu 13y ago
Size is definitely something we are incredibly conscious of. This device will be 40mm x 40m x 17mm, but we are always working on trying to get it to be smaller. We want this device to look great, and we are approaching it as if it almost were a fashion statement, or at least an accessory that a senior will wear.

jzwinck 13y ago

$30/month is too much for this to get Wal-Mart traction (which is what it needs, because not even the daughters of seniors buy FitBits online). Seniors often live on what they call "fixed income" which is a euphemism for government aid, pensions (which are diminishing), etc. A new expense cannot be covered by working harder or smarter. A $30/month new expense is exactly why lots of seniors do not have smartphones (ironic then that Amulyte folks say they considered making a phone app but not enough of the audience have smartphones, then made a device that costs the same as a smartphone data plan). Consider that the Kindle 3G comes with free cellular service. The hardware is in the same price ballpark, so why does Kindle let me download entire books for free, but Amulyte charges me $30/month to publish tiny updates that I hope I don't need? Also consider the SPOT satellite messenger. It costs $150 plus $150 per year, which is much cheaper than Amulyte. The main downside for this application is that it does not work indoors--but the SPOT folks could add GSM capability and then their device seems almost universally better (the one exception being ergonomics for seniors). Finally, ergonomics. Amulyte can't be too large, or it will be a constant dangling reminder of dying. And it obviously shouldn't be black in color--if not because black implies death then because new little black electronic widgets are really confusing and scary to old people. Round and light-colored would make a difference for some of the target audience.

jacalulu 13y ago
Thanks for the feedback, you bring up some valid points that we have definitely thought through. First, the expense associated with the device is comparable to what is currently on the market (in some cases it is actually less expensive than the competition). We realize that not everyone will be able to afford devices like this, which is why we also want to explore ways to get this subsidized. We believe that a device like this can allow seniors to live independently for longer, thus allowing them to remain in their own homes longer, and saving them on the cost of retirement and nursing homes (not to mention studies show that 90%+ of seniors want to remain living in their own homes for as long as possible). Down the road we may even explore offering a less expensive version of this if that becomes possible on our end (we still need to cover manufacturing costs and overhead). You bring up a few other examples, but none of them are exactly comparable. First, the Kindle makes its profits off the books you do buy (they may offer some for free, but the profit comes from the business model in which users do still pay for books on their device). Second, you bring up SPOT then add that it doesn't actually work the way we do. The added functionality does come at an additional cost on our end. We are also spending more on getting a smaller form factor (this means a lot more work on the hardware engineering side), and we are creating a custom dock so that the pendant can be easily recharged without needing to fidget with a micro USB. In terms of ergonomics, the device will measure approximately 40mm x 40mm, which is comparable to current devices on the market with a limited set of features. We are continuously trying to engineer the device to be smaller, and over time we will be able to, but this does incur larger upfront costs and a longer period of time. So right now, we are focusing on making the best device possible, and will continue to iterate and improve on it as components get better and better :) As for the black - it tested rather well with males (although my preference, and that of a lot of the female seniors we showed the designs to, did prefer the lighter coloured device).