Overpromise and Underdeliver: the HELO band

Those of you who have diabetes or pre-diabetes may have been spammed on Facebook or similar social media sites by someone marketing the HELO band. At first look, it is basically something like a Fitbit or such. However, it had promised in Jan 2017 something that had never been achieved by anyone: non-invasive continuous blood glucose estimation. See press release dated Jan 10, 2017.

PRNewswire press release from WRMT where it claimed it will
launch blood glucose estimation tech in its "Helo" wellness band
dated Jan 10th, 2017

However, it is interesting to note that NO SUCH FEATURE was mentioned on World's official website, worldgn.com

worldgn.com shows no blood sugar feature on their HELO device as of JUN-28-2017

Now isn't that interesting...




However, its reps have been repeating the blood sugar pitch all over Facebook...  Here are two of the examples.

World rep priases World CEO ahead of curve with
blood glucose monitoring wearable wristband

World rep claims Helo LX offers "similar"
continuous blood glucose monitoring in a wristband

But let's think about it for a moment.  If Helo can actually do blood glucose monitoring without any pinpricks or incisions, it'd be a total game changer. Heck, Apple was working on one, according to CNBC. However, when you read World's quarterly report dated June 8, 2017...

WRMT / Worldgn has no patents nor applying for any, as of June 8, 2017

That's right, Worldgn basically told everyone that they have NO PATENT (nor any pending) on anything (esp. this blood sugar monitoring thing)  despite promising to launch such a thing back in January 2017.

So this feature, despite being "world's first" (quoting the January press release), is NOT patentable (or they'd have applied for one already, right?)  And despite having promised such for SIX MONTHS (coming up on 7th) no such feature even listed on their own website.

Basically, Worldgn reps are advertising VAPORWARE (i.e. features that don't exist), because there is no such feature. And even if there are, it'd be a total guesswork (why do you think it's called "estimation"?) and totally useless for its intended purpose.

So, Worldgn reps, stop parroting your company's marketing speech. Start using your brain a bit.

ADDENDUM: After I hit post, a fellow skeptic clued me in... the HELO band is a rebadged Chinese fitness band called QT-B02 Smartband by Quality Technology Industrial in Shenzhen, China.

This is HELO LX:

And this is QT-B02 Smartband:

Identical, right? If you are still not convinced, let's do a close up:

Still not quite convinced? Let's compare the back:

What are the chances that two completely separate fitness bands would have almost identical front, back, and side?

Now you're probably saying, smartbands all look alike. However, what you didn't know is HELO LX, according to FCC, was made by Quality Technology Industrial of Shenzhen. This is the FCC required report that confirmed it. :

As shown previously the Q-BT02 is made by the same company, Quality Technology Industrial.

Now let us compare featuers. This is HELO LX Feature Set as shown above:

And this is the QT-B02's feature set, with matching HELO LX's feature set for comparison:

Wow, the QT-B02, with the display, has, even MORE, features than HELO LX, though the core feature set, i.e. ECG, Heart rate, Breath Rate, Blood Pressure, Activity Tracker, SOS Alert, are identical.

As shown above, QT-B02 goes for about $31 wholesale. Let's say $60-90 retail.

Care to guess how much is HELO LX selling for?

$100? $150? $200? $250?

Try $319.   And app is NOT included. Instead, you pay for monthly subscription.

Wow, that's a markup of 1000% percent.   ($31 wholesale, $319 retail)

So to summarize:

HELO LX took a cheap Chinese smartband, marked it up 1000 PERCENT, and justified it by promising features that Do NOT EXIST.

That is the very definition of overpromise and underdeliver.

EDIT: Revised to show the proper band. Previously the HELO was matched to a different QT product, the Around smartband, which was QT-B02's brother, with a different band design, but same innards.