Withings

$100 smart scale at CES, $20 Chinese white-label clone next door

At CES, Sam watched a friend fall in love with a $100 Withings sleep/scale product, then walk to the next booth where a Chinese manufacturer offered to white-label the exact same thing for $20. The story illustrates how cloneable consumer hardware is and how thin the moat on 'beautiful product' branding can be.

“We saw Withings. You know Withings? Yep. They make fancy scales. I think they're owned by Nokia. Beautiful products. He found one that he loved. It was $100. It looked awesome. They go, we think it's going to be big. It comes with an app. He goes, okay, sounds good. Walked next door. There was the Chinese knockoff making the exact same thing. And he would— he said, white label? And they go, yeah. And they go, how much? And he goes, $20.”

Steal thisBefore paying retail for a branded hardware product, walk the trade-show floor to find the OEM and white-label the same unit at a fraction of the price.