BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Canadian innovation SmartHalo has now fulfilled its Kickstarter pre-orders and has gone on general sale. It was launched in 2015 and, via roundel LED displays and "contextual sounds", can navigate, notify when telephone calls come through and act as a bike alarm. The wraparound handlebar unit also doubles as a front light.
SmartHalo can also track and analyse fitness metrics without having to press start or stop.
The device pre-sold 3,354 units on Kickstarter – raising £325,600 – and these and other pre-orders have now been delivered.
The SmartHalo costs £129 and as well being available online and in select bike stores it is also now available from Apple Stores in North America.
SmartHalo’s Colin Maclean said:
"This exposes SmartHalo to a whole new crowd. Lots of cyclists don’t know about SmartHalo yet. This will provide a new venue for those people to discover us as it will be sold in Apple stores and on Apple’s online store. In the end, if more people with more SmartHalo devices on their bikes can also convince more people to bike safer, we all win."
He added:
"This is going to make the product even better. We are a feedback-driven company. As more and more cyclists get their hands on SmartHalo, we will gather more valuable insights on how we can continually improve the software and firmware that drives SmartHalo. We even received some precious tips from Apple on how to improve the experience."
