Oura is launching its next-generation smart ring this month: the Bloomberg

• Oura Health Oy is launching a new smart ring this month, Bloomberg reported.
• CEO Tom Hale said the company expects to double its annual sales this year to about $500 million.
• The company faces increasing competition from products like Samsung’s latest Galaxy Ring.

Oura Health Oy is set to launch a new generation of rings this month, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

The Finnish company’s fourth generation of fitness trackers will feature a slimmer design, improved battery life and more accurate activity tracking. Sources told Bloomberg that this marks the company’s most significant product update in three years.

Oura has sold more than 2.5 million rings since its inception 11 years ago, according to a press release in June.

The company’s rings, priced at $299, track various health metrics, including sleep and heart rate. In addition to the hardware, Oura sells a $6 monthly subscription that gives users information about their sleep and other health data.

Oura’s smart rings are the favorite of athletes, from the WNBA to NASCAR; for royalty – even Prince Harry has one; and for executives, who were seen wearing the devices at July’s Sun Valley Conference, the “billionaire summer camp.”

CEO Tom Hale told Bloomberg that he expects the company’s annual sales to double this year to about $500 million.

While Oura has yet to reveal details about the upcoming launch, its latest smart ring could help maintain its edge in an increasingly saturated market.

In In July, Samsung entered the smart ring space with the $400 Galaxy Ring, which tracks health metrics and has built-in AI capabilities. Bloomberg reported in February that Apple was also toying with the idea of ​​developing smart rings, although no plans have been publicly announced. The Apple smartwatch tracks some of the same metrics as the Oura ring, including temperature and sleep.

In May, Samsung filed a preliminary injunction against Oura, saying the Galaxy Ring does not infringe on Oura’s patents.

The complaint said Oura had a track record of targeting competitors with patent lawsuits for widely used smart ring technologies such as sensors and health tracking metrics. Samsung referenced previous cases in which Oura has sued competitors, including Ultrahuman, RingConn and Circular.

Samsung filed the lawsuit, which is ongoing, after Oura’s Hale said in an interview with CNBC in January that the company would be closely monitoring the Galaxy Ring for possible intellectual property violations.

Big industry growth – but no Oura IPO yet

Smart rings are poised for significant growth, with Samsung’s Galaxy Ring potentially playing a key role industry expansion, Avi Greengart, president and principal analyst at Techsponential, told Business Insider in March.

Greengart said customers are increasingly conscious of improving their sleep. In 2021, Oura published a study claiming that finger monitoring is optimal for measuring sleep quality.

Last month, analysts at research firm IDC said the smart ring market could retain its “premium status as a select few brands still lead the category.”

According to a report by Global Market Insights published in February, the global smart ring market was worth $210 million in 2023 and is expected to reach $1 billion by 2032.

Companies – and their investors – like smart rings because customers are buying a monthly subscription, not just the ring itself. This translates into more stable and predictable income over time.

Despite the increased competition, Al Oura Hale told Bloomberg that the company “doesn’t have to do that much” to keep growing, adding that its profit margins are more similar to those of software makers than traditional hardware companies.

Hale said Oura has no immediate plans to go public. He said the company is more focused on growth and profitability, calling an initial public offering a potential “power pointer.”

Oura did not respond to an after-hours request for comment from Business Insider.