Safety-focused wearables added to Vodafone IoT offer

Two wearables have been added by the Vodafone Group to its European consumer IoT range, and its existing roster of devices connected by built-in SIMs and controlled through its smartphone app.

Its two new devices are a smartwatch aimed at children called the V-Kids Watch and emergency contact device V-SOS Band.

V-SOS is designed for people with mobility issues, who can programme the band to send a message to four contacts in an emergency situation. Features include fall detection, an alert triggered by the user and an inactivity monitor.

In addition to being a watch, V-Kids has a number of safety features built-in including an SOS alert function, and tracker delivering messages to parents if their child leaves a programmed “safe zone”.

The launches are an expansion of the V by Vodafone range, which launched in November 2017 in Spain, Germany, Italy and the UK. Its devices at launch comprised: a connected car dongle; pet tracker; luggage tag; and camera which was primarily marketed as a security or monitoring device. The range is now also available in Portugal.

In some markets it also supplies connected home products under the V-Home brand following a partnership with Samsung announced at MWC 2018.

Devices incorporate a V by Vodafone SIM controlled by a smartphone app and charged to the customer’s existing account. In addition to the up-front cost for the device, each SIM carries a subscription charge.

Vodafone did not reveal the cost of the new devices, but described the contract fee as “affordable”. Its current range of consumer IoT devices are priced between £59 and £339 in the UK with a cost of between £3 and £4 monthly charge.

In its statement on the release of new devices, the company confirmed it had 68 million IoT connections across Vodafone Group comprising enterprise and consumer deployments. This compares to 59 million in November 2017.