6/27/2023 0 Comments Monit diaper sensorA spokesperson for Kimberly-Clark responded that while the company was considering a US launch, “we have not made any final decisions at this time.” Tony Park, who developed the Bluetooth sensor used in Huggies’ smart diapers, told Vox that Huggies was planning to roll out the diapers in the US and Mexico this August. “The fact that the birthrates are quite low in the US has stirred a lot of interest in trying to get the consumer to spend more” Kimberly-Clark, for its part, promised more “ meaningful innovation” of its personal hygiene products, although the company already boasts everything from smart toilet paper to smart restrooms equipped with sensors that relay data about soap and toilet paper use. While typical electric toothbrushes cost around $30, P&G is planning to start its AI brush at $279, a massive price jump that foreshadows the future of the smart diaper. Later this year, Procter & Gamble, which manufactures Pampers, is launching an AI toothbrush that claims to improve brushing. The brands behind the major US diapers have already flooded the market with “smart” toothbrushes, razors, and skin care wands, all of which they hope will entice wealthier consumers who can be convinced to drop the extra money. That puts Huggies squarely in line with other companies advocating seemingly unnecessary tech infusions into ordinary hygiene products on the bet that it will widen their profit margins. Their whole hope is to create products that the consumer base will pay more for.” “The only way they can increase their business is to bring better products to the market. “The fact that the birthrates are quite low in the US has stirred a lot of interest in trying to get the consumer to spend more,” said Ali Dibadj, who tracks the personal products industry for the investment management group Sanford C. Huggies is making a bet different bet: By selling upscale diapers, it hopes to recoup the profits lost to a rapidly shrinking baby diaper market. Last summer, to counter wilting sales, Pampers raised the price of its signature diaper by 4 percent. After Kimberly-Clark, which manufactures Huggies, laid off 13 percent of its workers in January 2018, the CEO told investors, “You can’t encourage moms to use more diapers in a developed market where the babies aren’t being born in those markets.” As the birthrate declines for the seventh year in a row, there are fewer and fewer new parents to buy diapers, and almost all major diaper brands have taken hits. The furious pace of innovation belies the fact that the US diaper market is in trouble. That long march toward making smart diapers happen has been driven more by fears of slipping market shares than by any kind of real demand from consumers. Guido Kirchner/picture alliance via Getty Images A woman introduces the Opro 9 smart diaper. The Chinese personal care giant Hunan Cosom lists smart diapers among its products, as does the Chinese tech company Opro9.Įven Huggies’ main rival, Pampers, is working to revamp its product: Since 2014, Pampers has tested individualized diapers that fit to each baby’s unique “ pee points” to maximize urine absorbency. The health care company Pixie Scientific has been testing diapers that track infant urinary health since 2013, while Google’s parent company Alphabet submitted a patent last year for a carbon fiber-laced diaper that alerts parents about a shift in diaper equilibrium, including by distinguishing between poop and pee. The technology is reminiscent of a similar feature that Huggies considered releasing in 2013, then scrapped: TweetPee, a diaper sensor that slides into a parent’s DMs when their baby needs to be changed.Īlthough Huggies would be the first major company to bring its product to market in the US, it is only one player in the sprawling diaper-tech war. After launching smart diapers in Korea last October, the company appears set to bring the product to the US as soon as this summer. Leading the charge is Huggies, which has rallied an obscure invention - a Bluetooth sensor that texts parents about their babies’ bowel movements - into the centerpiece of its “smart diaper” line Monit x Huggies. Over the past several years, a patchwork of tech and personal care companies have plunged millions of dollars into a race to control the baby product of the future: smartphone-enabled diapers.
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