Disqus
Is it just me, or are Baby Monitors as bad as DECT landline phones in how far behind the technology curve they are? And this isn’t the first time I’ve ranted about it either……!
I just can’t believe that such a lucrative market segment (trust me, new parents will buy ANYTHING!) is not being exploited properly by companies out there. What we have right now in terms of baby monitors is in my opinion close to cr*p – not often I curse, but it gets me so irate.
Our £100 baby monitor at home is rubbish – old-tech batteries, rubbish run-time, poor sound quality, poor aesthetics, cr*p range – the list goes on. Now let’s take a look at the available tech in Mobile/wireless:
• good batteries
• good screen
• good UI
• cameras – with lots of scene-sensing tech
• WiFi
If we even consider just the PC market, the Webcam has much of what is needed to make a good baby monitor, and is way cheaper! I came across the other day a now-defunct wireless web-cam that was remote-controllable, had low-lux, and was it’s own webserver – so you’d login via laptop and could steer the cam about in the child’s room – perfect!
Knowing this I went off to find the best baby monitor available to the general consumer – and it looks like something a toy manufacturer would make – frankly, not designed for use – or as I would say, rubbish!
Now monitoring babies is quite an emotive topic, an important one, and one that is very close to many parents’ hearts – yet the tech deployed to do the job is OUT-OF-DATE. There’s a screamingly good argument for a mobile manufacturer to come in and innovate in this area, to produce a reasonable cost, well-specced device. They know they could do it, and with such a lucrative market segment, if it were priced correctly, it would PWN the market – literally.
But no, right now we are served with sub-standard, out-of-date, and not-fit-for-purpose tech that we have to put up with, in the hope that our babies/kids will be fine when we are not immediately there – unacceptable, in my view.
Rant over. For now.
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
