Subscription hardware. This should be an oxymoron. Unfortunately, it is not.

Whoop charges a hefty monthly fee for their service. Between US$200 and US$359 per year at time of writing.

To put that price in context, an Apple Watch Series 11 can be financed for 12 months for the same cost as their top plan. Similarly capable watches from Apple can be had for as little as $100 outright on Amazon. This is not to mention Google, Xiaomi, and many others offering compelling competitors for $100 or less, also outright, that’s under $10/mo to own it outright within a year.

Oura is a similar story, yet they have the audacity to also charge for their hardware upfront the same as that aforementioned Apple Watch, US$350 plus a mandatory $6/mo subscription (more than the purchase cost assuming 5 years of use) to do anything useful with it. This includes gating the ability of using the device with third party apps behind this subscription. Samsung’s ring, available at the same cost, does not require you to pay them every month in perpetuity to use the product you bought.

For the money, you get a lot less. That’s OK, we can accept that a pleasant design or software experience can command a premium over a do-everything device. There is no issue with a premium chef’s knife commanding a premium over a swiss army knife.

The issue is not a premium price. Oura can charge $1000, a whoop can cost more than a car, that’s fine. The issue is that these companies levee a fee on their customers in perpetuity to use the hardware they bought and paid for.

One of the silver linings of our rapid advancement of tech is that obsolete technology provides an incredibly accessible way for everyone to participate which still respects its users. An old iPhone is a much better device than one of Samsung’s disgusting, ad ridden, deeply uncertified entry level phones, it’s cheaper, and to add insult to injury it will probably have software support for longer.

I mention this because adding a mandatory perpetual subscription makes Oura and Whoop unappealing to customers looking to save. The result of this is the crippling of the used economy for these devices. It attacks the “reuse” part of reduce reuse recycle directly. Price sensitive buyers looking for used tech who would happily keep a device out of landfill for years won’t choose to purchase a device whose subscription cost quickly accumulates to more than its purchase cost.

There is a responsible way to do this, beyond just charging a higher price upfront or just giving customers a good deal. There can be a default app with all their fancy insights and PrOpRietARy AlGoRIThmS and if it’s so good, people will choose to volunarily pay for it. If they don’t want to, there should be APIs usable for free to anyone to access the device’s sensor data directly.

Never paywalling device access is not only honest, but drives a strong community who will improve your device for you, for free. You can impose a license for using your API. You can forbid your API users from charging from their apps without paying you. You can enshrine your right to sherlock their app if you want. You can take it pretty far, but there is a hard line at not allowing the user to make use of their own device without paying you over time.

Most people will subscribe to your default app if it’s great, if it’s the default, and is marketed well. Microsoft disgustingly advertises their subpar services as defaults, and they make a good deal of revenue on it. Why can’t Whoop and Oura at least reach the bar Microsoft placed in a pit under the floor?

Moreover, let’s actually talk about the MeTRIcS these companies like Whoop and Oura advertise.

It is my contention, based on nothing but intuition and some loose understanding of long term planning, that companies like Apple, Google, and Samsung don’t show such metrics not because they can’t, but because showing metrics so scientifically unsound would cause long term brand damage.

The metrics I am talking about are not heart rate, recovery time, skin temperature, EKG, GPS, sleep tracking which are available with similar accuracy on Apple Watch or other no-perpetual-subscription competitors.

I call these metrics unsound not because I am some medical doctor. I call them unsound because Strain, Recovery, and Readiness are not medically defined terms at all. They are algorithms which are obsoleted not by some AI innovation, but by your own sense of how you feel after a workout. If you feel ready, and your Whoop tells you you aren’t, are you still gonna work out?

Apple wouldn’t put their name on placebos like this. At least, they haven’t done it yet. The beautiful part is that if you want them, you can go vibecode an app today to use HealthKit to calculate these. If you prefer Android, grab a Fitbit band and do the same over there.

Let’s take Apple Health as an example of an honest app which respects its users. I could use Google Health here, or the Fitbit app, or Garmin’s app, or probably a hundred others here, but Apple is the one I happen to know best.

💡 Apple has fumbled with liquid gl
ass, they have been hostile to third party repair, they have lobbied to “protect” their ecosystem from open standards. They are far from altruistic.

Apple Health, captured by Apple

Whoop App, captured by TechGearLab

Apple health does not show you “vibe” metrics. It shows you the data which Apple is confident in. It does not draw conclusions for you, it directs you to speak to a medical professional. It is honest about the function and capability of the kind of fitness product they are selling.

The truth is, a band or ring cannot determine if you are ready or strained or anything like that. There is not enough data to make inferences from, at least not with current models, to my knowledge. Apple tells you the truth about what this device can do and it does not fake any magic.

I reiterate, if you disagree why not vibe code an app to deliver these metrics people want with HealthKit and make millions. I’d be happy to link your app right here and encourage anyone to pay whatever subscription fee you charge, as long as you don’t threaten to brick people’s hardware to force them to pay.

If Whoop or Oura go under, will they sell the rights to that subscription revenue, brick them all like many subscription hardware companies have, or do the right thing and open up their API or make their app free?

In short, Whoop and Oura would threaten to break your device if you don’t pay their monthly ransom. They charge you even if you do not want to use their software. Their devices may be bricked forever if they so choose. Buy anything else instead please, or I’ll be very sad. Vibe code whatever vibe metrics you want.