Apple and Amazon are facing a class-action style damages lawsuit in the UK alleging they abused their market power by colluding to increase the price of Apple products.

The suit, which has been filed in front of the Competition Appeals Tribunal today, is seeking compensation of at least £500 million (~$645M) on behalf of millions of UK consumers who bought Apple or (Apple-owned) Beats products on Amazon’s marketplace since October 2018.

It alleges Amazon and Apple struck a secret deal in 2018 that unlawfully increased the price of Apple products sold on Amazon’s ecommerce marketplace.

The litigants allege the deal led to the ecommerce giant restricting sales of popular Apple products by independent merchants on its marketplace in exchange for preferential wholesale prices on all Apple and Beats kit — inflating prices for UK consumers buying Apple and Beats products on Amazon.

“The claim alleges that, by January 2019, almost all independent merchants of Apple and Beats products disappeared from the Amazon marketplace as a result of Apple and Amazon’s collusion,” they wrote in a press release. “This led to a decrease in the discounts provided to customers by the limited number of independent merchants remaining, and a significant increase in the sales of Apple and Beats products at undiscounted prices.”

The proposed class representative for the suit is Christine Riefa, a professor of law at the University of Reading whose academic work focuses on consumer protection law and policy.

Commenting on the suit in a statement, she argues the pair’s market power enabled them to restrict consumer choice and drive up prices:

Millions of consumers in the UK enjoy the services and products of Apple and Amazon. They do not suspect that those companies collude to make them pay more for their electronics and reduce their choice. I believe that big businesses like Apple and Amazon should behave fairly and compete on merits, not by using underhand tactics.

Each company has an effective stranglehold over its market, and they are misusing that advantage to shut out competition from independent merchants — unlawfully lining their wallets at the expense of consumers. It’s a betrayal of their customers’ loyalty.

At a time when families are under huge financial pressure from high inflation, mortgage and energy costs, it is more important than ever for consumers to be treated fairly. I decided to bring the claim because consumers individually would never have been able to and the two Tech giants would have continued to line their pockets with their unlawful behaviours going unchecked.

The law firm supporting Riefa to bring the representative action is Hausfeld & Co LLP.  In another supporting statement, Wessen Jazrawi, partner at Hausfeld, added:

Apple and Amazon have worked together to exclude competitors on the Amazon platform and to reduce the availability of discounted products, at their customers’ expense. We look forward to working with Christine Riefa to return money to those who have lost out and to making these companies accountable for their unlawful conduct.

The claim is being brought on an opt-out basis — meaning all UK class members are included by default (and would be in line for compensation if the litigations prevails) unless they decide to opt-out. Affected consumers do not have to pay costs or fees to participate in the legal action, which is being funded by a commercial litigation funder whose name is not being disclosed. (But Law360 UK is reporting it’s the UK-based litigation funder, Asertis.)

UK consumers who believe they are eligible to be a member of the claimant class can find more information via the claim website: www.ukappleamazonclaim.co.uk.

Apple and Amazon were contacted for a response to the legal action.

An Amazon spokesperson sent us this statement:

This claim is without merit, and we’re confident that this will become clear throughout the process. As a result of our agreement with Apple, customers can find the latest Apple and Beats products on our store, and they benefit from an expanded range with better deals and faster shipping.

The UK litigation follows antitrust enforcements against the two tech giants in Italy and and Spain that led to fines totalling almost $440M being issued in recent years.

The two countries’ national competition regulators found the pair had colluded to place unlawful restrictions on resellers of Apple kit on Amazon’s local marketplaces. Amazon and Apple dispute the findings and filed appeals.

An appeal against the Italian decision was successful on procedural grounds in June last year but the litigants in the UK suit assert there was no criticism of the decision’s factual or economic findings, adding that they are drawing on information and economic analysis contained in the Italian regulator’s decision to support their claim.

Over in the US the two tech giants are also facing a similar class action alleging price collusion. And just last month a federal judge denied a motion by the companies seeking to dismiss the consumer antitrust lawsuit — ruling it could proceed.

In separate news earlier this week, Apple was also targeted in the UK with another (unrelated) class action damages claim. In that case the litigants are seeking around $1BN in compensation on behalf of UK developers who they allege have been subject to anti-competitive behavior by the iPhone maker in relation to its App Store fees.

Spain’s antitrust authority has fined Amazon and Apple a total of €194 million (~$218M) for unfairly restricting competition around the reselling and marketing of Apple kit and other products on the ecommerce giant’s local ecommerce marketplace. The penalties break down into around $161M for Apple and just under $57M for Amazon.

The country’s competition watchdog, La Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (CNMC), found that contract clauses the pair agreed “unreasonably restricted” the number of Apple resellers on Amazon’s local marketplace, amazon.es.

It also said they limited advertising space where competing Apple products could be advertised on Amazon Spain and limited the possibility for Amazon to target customers of Apple products using its website with ads for other electronics brands.

The watchdog has ordered the pair to cease the infringing behavior, as well as issuing financial penalties.

Back in November 2021 Italy’s competition watchdog hit Amazon and Apple with a $230 million penalty for alleged collusion in a similar case related to the reselling of Apple and Apple-owned Bears kit on Amazon. Both companies said they would appeal that decision.

The CNMC’s findings relate to contracts Amazon and Apple signed locally at the end of October 2018 — which contained so-called “brand gating” or exclusion clauses.

“Both companies agreed that only a series of distributors designated by Apple itself could sell Apple-branded products through the Amazon website in Spain,” the watchdog explained in a press release (which we’ve translated from Spanish). 

It found these restrictions resulted in more than 90% of Apple product resellers who had been using Amazon’s website in Spain being excluded from the main local online sales channel for electronics.

Reseller and ads squeeze

Per the CNMC, these were mostly unauthorized (smaller) resellers of Apple kit who do not have a direct commercial relationship with the tech giant but sell its products with consent. These non-authorized resellers had typically been most active on Amazon’s site prior to the contract changes — and tended to offer consumers more competitive prices. So once they lost access to the sales channel it said there was an increase in the relative prices paid by consumers to buy Apple products on Amazon in Spain.

Additionally, it found the contractual restrictions imposed by the two companies also had the effect of limiting trade between Member States since they also reduced reselling by sellers based in other EU countries.

While marketing limitation clauses agreed by the pair restricted Amazon from running ad campaigns targeting customers who had purchased Apple products on the Amazon website in Spain unless it obtained Apple’s contain — including a ban on ads encouraging these consumers to change from an Apple product to a competitive one.

The CNMC said the upshot of the marketing agreements was to reduce competitive pressure on Apple in Spain.

It also suggested the restrictions harmed consumers by limiting their ability to discover new brands or alternative products, as well as increasing their searching costs and reducing their ability to switch away from buying Apple kit.

Taken as a whole, the watchdog said the 2018 contract contributed to changing the sales dynamics of Apple products on the Amazon website in Spain — restricting intra-brand and inter-brand competition, in violation of Spanish competition law. 

Apple and Amazon can appeal the CNMC’s decision to the national court within two months. Both companies confirmed to TechCrunch that they intend to do so.

Defending the sanctioned behaviors, Apple claimed its main objectives for the 2018 agreements with Amazon Spain were related to counterfeit goods and safety issues — saying it had had to dedicate significant time and resource to dealing with fakes and safety issues that had remained unaddressed on Amazon’s marketplace leading up to the 2018 contracts.

This included sending hundreds of thousands of take-down notices to Amazon to try to address the sale of counterfeits — but which Apple said failed to stop the problem. It also said it conducted its own test purchases on Amazon’s marketplaces which consistently returned high counterfeit rates.

However, after the 2018 agreement was put in place, it said sales of counterfeit Apple products on Amazon’s marketplaces significantly reduced and the customer experience materially improved.

The company argues that settled case-law and legal precedents recognize that the purpose of protecting customers and a premium experience justifies limitation on the use of marketplaces. (Albeit, Apple’s defence of the agreements does not offer a justification for why the contracts also included clauses restricting Amazon’s ability to market rival electronics products.)

Apple’s spokesperson also sent us this statement:

At Apple, we work hard to create the best products and user experience in the world. To protect users from security, safety, and quality risks created by counterfeit products, we have rules in place that have effectively reduced counterfeiting as well as dedicated teams around the world who work tirelessly with merchants, law enforcement and customs officials to ensure our very high standards are met. We stand behind our efforts to protect consumers and plan to appeal the Court’s decision to the Spanish High Court.

Amazon Spain also send us a statement:

We intend to appeal as we disagree with the decision of the Spanish Competition Authority (CNMC). We also disagree with the Competition Authority’s suggestion that Amazon benefits by excluding sellers from our store. Our business model relies on sellers’ success — most of which are small business. Moreover, as a result of the agreement with Apple, Spanish customers benefit from a selection that has more than doubled in the last four years, and offers excellent deals and fast shipping.

In background remarks the company suggested the 2018 contract had been beneficial to Spanish consumers — claiming it had boosted the range of certain Apple products sold on its marketplace and also greatly increased the volume of sales for new Apple products.

More Apple products were also shipped fast-track after the agreements, per Amazon — which further claimed tat discounts on iPhone models rose on average by 6% percentage points in the second and third year after the implementation of the agreements; while it said discounts on iPad models rose on average by 7%-8% over the same period.

Another grim stage for VanMoof, the e-bike startup backed by venture capitalists to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. After making a last-hour effort to stave off bankruptcy last week, the court of Amsterdam has taken the step of officially declaring bankruptcy for the company’s Dutch legal entities, VanMoof Global Holding B.V., VanMoof B.V. and VanMoof Global Support B.V.. The court has now appointed two trustees to explore an asset sale to a third party to keep VanMoof running.

Legal entities outside of The Netherlands are part of the group, but they not involved in these proceedings. It’s unclear what that means for operations in, for example, the United States, but stores there have been closed globally since last week.

The full statement from the company:

On 17 July 2023, the court of Amsterdam withdrew the suspension of payment proceeding of the Dutch legal entities VanMoof Global Holding B.V., VanMoof B.V. and VanMoof Global Support B.V. and declared these entities bankrupt.

The two administrators Mr. Padberg and Mr. De Wit have been appointed as trustees. The trustees are continuing to assess the situation at VanMoof and are investigating the possibilities of a re-start out of bankruptcy by means of an asset sale to a third party, so that the activities of VanMoof can be continued.

The VanMoof legal entities outside the Netherlands are not in insolvency proceedings.

There will be no further comments at this time.

The development caps off a very difficult couple of weeks for the Dutch startup. At the beginning of last week, we reported on how the company had paused sales, initially claiming that technical difficulties were the cause, and then later claiming that the pause was intentional, to catch up on production and orders.

Meanwhile, an increasingly angry customer base took to social media to complain about the quality of the bikes, after-sales care and much more. All of that played out against a background of a company burning through its cash reserves and struggling to raise more money to stave off insolvency and to pay its bills.

Before the week was out, the company was in court asking for an official suspension of payment provision to hold off paying bills while it restructured its finances under the direction of administrators.

The purpose of the provision is to try to stave off bankruptcy, giving more of the creditors a chance of recovering what they are owed, and keeping VanMoof in better financial standing for whatever steps came next. It can last for up to 18 months, but only if the company has the funds to continue. Clearly it was only a matter of days before the court determined that bankruptcy and looking for a buyer for the assets was the inevitable next step.

It’s not clear where bankruptcy will leave those who have purchased bikes that have yet to be received, or those whose bikes are being serviced, or what happens if you own a VanMoof bike that breaks down since the custom design means they are not able to be fixed by just anyone. All of that is surely a frustrating state of affairs, considering that the bikes can cost as much as $4,000.

But for current owners who have bikes that are working, not all is lost. We’ve reported on how Cowboy, one of VanMoof’s big rivals, has wasted no time in building an app to unlock VanMoof bikes — important because they can end up bricked in their basic state, since their working is tied closely to the use of the VanMoof app, and the VanMoof app will not continue to be supported.

That points to an alarming prospect for VanMoof and its investors: if the unit economics of the bikes never worked out, and an app can be built in a day to unlock those bikes that are in the market already, why would anyone want to assume the assets of the failed startup?

We’ll update this post as we learn more.

When the EcoFlow Blade works, the results are fantastic. My yard looks great, and I didn’t have to spend an hour on a tractor. The Blade is quiet and capable. It’s also cheaply built, suffers from terrible software, and the installation is far from advertised.

I’ve been using the Blade for about two months, and now I have several expectations each time I use it. One, I’ll need to help the Blade sometime during its job by resetting it or moving an obstacle. Two, the mower will not dock properly, and I’ll have to shove it into the charging dock to recharge. Three, it will not mow the tall patches of grass fertilized by my dogs.

Frankly put, I’m disappointed and frustrated with the EcoFlow Blade. With its $2,899 price, I cannot recommend the unit and would highly advise shoppers to look at the much-less expensive Worx mowers or the Husqvarna mowers, which cost the same as the Blade but have been on the market for over ten years.

EcoFlow launched the Blade in Spring 2023, and it’s available for purchase online and through major retailers like Home Depot. But it’s not ready for general consumers, and I’m doubtful it will be ready. The company has shipped a handful of firmware updates that’s improved the Blade’s functionality. Yet fundamental problems remain, from its design to competitive features at its high price point.

My first review unit died after two weeks of use. The motor mount cracked, causing the blade to spin off-kilter and hit the safety housing. A company representative told me it was a pre-production unit. However, the second unit shipped in the same retail packaging as the first, and the second tester has an identical motor mount as the one that broke on the first tester.

Do a quick Google search. I’m not alone in my frustration around the Blade. Countless early adopters cite wireless connection problems, weak construction, and disappointment with the software. I’ve experienced the same issues with the two testers provided by EcoFlow.

At some points over the last month of testing, I’ve been so frustrated with this robot that I’ve considered letting it mow in the street.

[gallery ids="2569962,2569961,2569960,2569959,2569957,2569963"]

The good.

EcoFlow got some parts of the Blade correct. The current product is a good starting point; the next version might be worthwhile.

The Blade’s design is lovely and highly functional. It looks like a farm tractor from Halo. The open wheel design starkly contrasts the Roomba-like form factor of other robotic mowers. If the tires get muddy, spray them with a hose. There’s even a large handle in the back to make carrying easier.

The torque is impressive. The rear wheels have huge, knobby tires that allow it to climb hills and power through mud, gravel, and deep grass. It takes a lot to get the Blade stuck.

The mower deck is held in place by two adjustable arms. The blade assembly floats over the grass, and the app slightly raises or lowers the cutting height.

The front wheels are clever. They sit 45 degrees to the body and have unidirectional tires, giving the rear-wheel drive mower a tight turning radius. Even though the mower lacks all-wheel drive, the front tire design and the knobby rear tires provide the necessary traction to tackle nearly any terrain. On one side of my house is a steep hill, and the other features a side that sloops quickly away from the house. Both sides are a challenge to my Club Cadet lawn tractor; the tires always spin on these hills. The EcoFlow Blade scoots along where the tractor slides.

EcoFlow Blade

The Bad

The Blade’s downsides involve its blades. The little razor blades attach to a polycarbonate plate. This plate is connected to the motor. The motor sits in a divot constructed out of thin, cheap metal. A couple of screws hold it in place. The motor is not supported by anything else, and this is the critical flaw.

EcoFlow Blade

My first Blade review sample died when the motor mount cracked. How? I’m not sure. But I’m a DIY fixer, so I tore apart the unit with the goal of fixing it. I took off the blade unit. Four bolts hold on it. Next came off the motor mount assembly. It’s made of polycarbonate material and held in place with six hex-head bolts. The motor is held in place at the top of the mount with three or four bolts. This piece was shattered on my review unit. I was unable to remove all of the screws, so I was unable to remove the motor mount from the unit.

It was here I saw the problem. The shiny clean surface of the motor was peaking through a small crack on the motor mount. I wiggled the top of the motor. The crack wiggled open wider. I twisted the top of the motor, which ripped free of its cheap housing (with the top of the mount still attached). It’s easy to see why the mower failed: The motor doesn’t have enough support, and a catastrophic failure is near once the mount starts to fail.

I couldn’t fix it. EcoFlow sent me another unit.

The second review sample is still intact, but it has a different set of problems. This unit will only recharge with my help. The mower fails to fully return to its charging base. The Blade tries hard but doesn’t get far enough into the dock to recharge. This unit also forgets its wifi network credentials and requires a hard reset to connect to the app. The first unit didn’t have these issues.

Installation

EcoFlow says installation is easy. It’s not. It’s frustrating and limited by lackluster software.

I may have gone through more Blade installation routines than anyone outside the company. After all, I’m on my second unit and have tried more than a dozen mowing patterns with each. I never want to install another.

The installation sounds great on paper as it uses 4G and GPS to create a mowing area instead of a physical wire used in older robotic mowers.

There are three steps to the installation:

• Create the outside boundary of the yard
• If needed, designate no-mow zones
• If needed, create paths between different mowing zones

To install the Blade, the owner connects the mower to their phone. Using the app, the owner drives the mower around the yard. Controlling the Blade during installation is like pushing a block of ice on a frozen lake. The mower refuses to move in a straight line in manual mode. Occasionally, during setup, the mower will suddenly veer to a side and stop leaving a weird spot on the designated mowing area.

At the time of testing, there was no way to fix or modify the designated area. If the mower accidentally slides into your neighbor’s yard during setup (it will), you’re left with two options: Mow your neighbor’s yard, or delete the entire map and start the mapping from the beginning.

Another weird bug: If two designated mowing areas touch, the software combines them into one area. Said another way, if your front yard mowing area touches the back yard mowing area, the software automatically converts both areas into one gigantic area. This is not ideal as I want to control the two zones independently and not leave a strip of uncut grass between the two zones.

Both of the review units occasionally lost connection with the base unit. It’s unreliable, and I am still trying to determine why the connection drops.

Operation

Hit a button in the app or on the unit, and the Blade starts mowing with excitement. The mower travels to the farthest point from the base unit and starts its back-and-forth routine.

Front-facing radar and lidar help with object detection. It avoids poles and landscaping without issue. Dog poop? The Blade runs over it without a second thought.

Strangely, the front sensors also cause the Blade to avoid random weeds and tall grass — like the dark green grass from where my dogs pee. When approaching a wayward dandelion, the Blade stops short, thinks for 30 seconds, and casually sidesteps the weed with a Wall-E-like uninterested demeanor.

I have a typical suburban yard. It’s half an acre, with the house situated in the front half, leaving a short front yard and a large backyard. The size is larger than the recommended area — which in practice means the Blade needs to recharge to finish its job. Typically, it needs to recharge three times to mow the yard. If the mower requires user intervention, the mower will reset and insist on starting from the beginning. There needs to be a way to control where the mower begins or resumes. One side of my yard is mowed daily, and the far side is mowed about twice a week — it just depends if the mower successfully makes it through the yard and recharging cycle.

I’m going to drudge out that overused phrase: hardware is hard. EcoFlow is one of the fastest-growing consumer hardware companies, and its first robotic lawn mower is not worth your time or money.

There’s a thought process in Silicon Valley to ship fast and update often. It works with smartphones and game systems but not with lawn equipment. Consumers have certain expectations and requirements for home appliances like lawn mowers. It needs to be reliable, trustworthy, and hardy. The EcoFlow Blade is none of these things. It’s testy, fickle, and delicate.

The company is constantly pushing new firmware updates to the mower. I lost track of the number of updates EcoFlow has provided. This is a good sign. It shows the product is in active development and will improve over time. Some of my issues with the software will likely be resolved, but the weak and lackluster hardware is stuck.

The $2,899 EcoFlow Blade robotic mower disappoints with shoddy hardware and software by Matt Burns originally published on TechCrunch

E-bike startup VanMoof company has applied to a local court for an official suspension of payment provision after running out of money.

Is VanMoof about to go ‘poof’? According to a report in the Dutch publication NRC, VanMoof is not officially bankrupt with this move: this is a particular scheme in the country that is designed to help a company try to avoid that, and give a temporary protection from creditors.

Earlier this week, we broke the news on how the Amsterdam-based e-bike startup, backed by hundreds of millions of dollars in venture funding, was facing a major crisis: a prolonged pause in sales; a barrage of angry customers demanding refunds for their bikes, or complaining about the lack of service on their broken bikes; the departures of key executives; and struggles to raise money to continue operating.

The move to the Dutch courts effectively means that VanMoof cannot be forced to pay bills or other money owed, and that any money that it does pay out, and any financial moves it makes at this point (including raising money) will be required to go through court-appointed administrators for approval.

The court order can be in place for up to 18 months, and during that time VanMoof has time to restructure its business and look for new investment. If it doesn’t find a way ahead in that time, it then files for bankruptcy.

NRC reports that employees will be officially told about the state of the company today, and that the court will officially announce the suspension Thursday.

In the meantime, the company has closed all of its retail stores and appears to have halted all other activity, including its bike servicing.

As we detailed in our story earlier this week, one of the main issues with VanMoof’s bikes is that they are custom designed from the ground up, including being tightly integrated with the VanMoof app.

The first of these means it’s virtually impossible for anyone to repair a VanMoof bike themselves. Prior to today’s announcement, on June 27, VanMoof said KwikFit NL, the car maintenance chain, would be a new service partner.

The second of these means that if the company does go bust and fails to find a buyer for the assets, the bikes already out in the world — if they are not already broken — lose most of their connected functionality, although are still more or less usable. Instead of opening the bike with the app, users can, for instance, use a backup unlock code on the start/bell button to start and ride the bike without their phone. But this will, of course, be scant assurance for customer who wanted the full VanMoof functionality.

The company has been facing a huge backlash for its models, not least because its bikes appear to be less than robust. As we reported earlier this week, one in 10 bikes last year were returned after purchase, and the company was losing money on bikes based on the costs of repairs of those that remained in people’s ownership.

And as for those repairs, this reddit post, allegedly from a former employee at the company’s Los Angeles outpost, paints a bleak picture of the company’s internal processes.

TechCrunch has reached out to the company for a response and will update this story as we learn more.

Van-oof! E-bike startup VanMoof, unable to pay bills, files for payment deferment in Holland by Ingrid Lunden originally published on TechCrunch

European sustainable smartphone brand Fairphone is dipping a toe in the US market by making its flagship repairable handset available to buy there for the first time via another collaboration with e/OS, a French privacy-focused not-for-profit open source OS maker that offers a “deGoogled” mobile operating system.

The Dutch ethical electronics social enterprise remains focused on selling modular kit in its home region. But announcing a pilot to sell one of its smartphone models in the US today — namely the Murena Fairphone 4 with /e/OS — it said it’s keen to learn more about the market where it’s seen some interest in its devices.

The Fairphone 4 was first released in Europe back in September 2021. And while, at a glance, it can look like a pretty typical (slightly chunky) Android smartphone its superpower is that it’s modular by design — meaning it’s repairable and upgradeable without the need to buy a whole new handset.

Commenting on the pilot in a statement, outgoing CEO Eva Gouwens said: “We know based on feedback we have received that there are many people interested in Fairphone in the US. However, currently our main focus is on the European market. This collaboration with e/OS/ is a great opportunity for us to pilot selling devices in the US market with a long-standing partner and learn more about the American market.”

Fairphone’s mission is all about boosting device longevity to shrink environmental impact, rather than monetizing obsolescence to keep consumers buying more new stuff. It is also very focused on fairness around working conditions — hence the ethical aspect — requiring its manufacturing partners to commit to a living wage program, for instance.

The Fairphone 4 typically runs Google’s Android OS — the handset model ran Android 11 out-of-the-box at launch — but the version of the flagship 5G smartphone that’s been made available to US buyers is entirely deGoogled. (e/OS is a fork of Android that’s stripped of proprietary Google services in a bid to lock down user privacy.)

The non-de-Googled Android version of the Fairphone 4 (Image credits: Fairphone)

Gaël Duval, Murena CEO and /e/OS founder, said the not-for-profit it excited to offer Fairphone’s device to the US market. “We are excited to bring high-quality sustainable phones with advanced privacy features to the USA. With the inclusion of our pro-privacy operating system /e/OS, we are proud to offer users a device that not only lasts longer but also protects people’s personal data. At Murena, we are convinced that this is the perfect combination for a more ethical phone,” he said in a statement.

Local pricing for the Fairphone 4 on the Murena online shop is listed as between $629.90 and $699.90 (shipping within a week) — although Fairphone’s RRP are set a little lower: $599 for the 6GB/128GB version and $679 for the 8GB/256GB variant.

Just one wrinkle: It’s only being recommended for use with T-Mobile and MVNOs based on the T-Mobile network in the US, with the pair warning that using Fairphone 4 with other US carriers is “not recommended”.

It will be interesting to see how much US interest there is in an iPhone and (Google) Android alternative that packs sustainable and ethical smarts.

While Apple has been dipping a toe into repairability — likely with an eye on ‘right to repair’ regulations coming down the pipe — its hermetically sealed devices typically score terribly for repairability. Whereas Fairphone’s modular-by-design kit, with screwdriver included, is the unrivalled king of the hill on this front.

Fairphone’s repairable smartphone goes on sale in US for the first time — in a ‘deGoogled’ Murena e/OS variant by Natasha Lomas originally published on TechCrunch

The technology industry at large might not be in the best of health at the moment, but health and fitness startups appear to be alive and well. EGYM, the Munich-based “smart workout solution” business, has agreed a monster equity investment of €207 million ($225 million), on the back of a very strong year of growth, led by the investment firm started by Jared Kushner.

The company’s business includes both a line of connected hardware (its own gym equipment); software (apps and diagnostics to measure and optimise how people work out on EGYM’s and other connected fitness equipment); a corporate health network operation called Wellpass with more than 2.5 million users; and a mission: to improve healthcare outcomes by focusing on “the shared economy of a gym,” in the words of CEO and co-founder Philipp Roesch-Schlanderer.

“Ninety-nine percent of the market is repair versus prevention,” he said of the approach to healthcare and its focus on chronic conditions treated with medicine and related therapies, an approach that he believes would be less likely, and less expensive, if people exercised and treated their bodies better. “We want to shift that.”

You can argue that this is a gross over-simplification of the state of global healthcare market today, but you might argue less with EGYM’s numbers.

The business brought in $130 million in revenues in 2022, growing 70% year-over-year. Wellpass, a big focus for the company going forward, grew 100% in the same period. En route to a future IPO, it expects to double down on newer markets like the U.S. and become profitable while doubling overall revenues to $260 million in 2023.

And in a difficult year for fundraising when investors’ attention seems mostly focused on AI startups, EGYM’s round is one of the biggest to come out of Europe.

All the more interesting, then, when you consider the lead investor. Affinity Partners — the Saudi-backed, Florida-based investment firm founded by the son-in-law and close confidante of former U.S. President Donald Trump — is leading the round, with previous backers Mayfair Equity Partners and Bayern Kapital also participating. This is a Series F, and EGYM said that roughly half of it, €107 million, will “flow immediately” with the remaining €100 million on the table for future use.

The first tranche is coming at a post-money valuation of €600 million. Based on the company’s growth rate — which is currently at a rate of 70% year-over-year for the full business — Roesch-Schlanderer said that when the second tranche is drawn down, it will likely be at a higher valuation.

EGYM’s current flush period comes after nearly 14 years in business — it was founded in 2010 — and nearly going bust during Covid when all gym activity grounded to a halt. And the idea had very classic beginning: it came to Roesch-Schlanderer to solve his own problem; specifically, his own failings when it came to exercise.

“It all started with me being an unsuccessful gym goer,” he said in an interview, explaining that typically while people are shown how to use the array of machines at their gyms, they’re largely left to their own devices after that. “I tried to understand why I and so many others fail to work well there.”

Roesch-Schlanderer, who studied tech entrepreneurship and management at university, predictably saw a business opportunity in that question — one that could be answered with technology.

“I realised that those who work well either have trainers or themselves backgrounds in exercise science,” he said. “So we decided that we could make the gym work if we provided an AI-based trainer to every user.”

And that is, in effect, what the company’s longer-term goal has been.

The business started very much focused around its own hardware coupled with basic usage measurements based on people exercising on EGYM’s own equipment. Over time, the company has been slowly incorporating more sophisticated tech into the mix, and making the software work with other equipment. The AI-based personal trainer he speaks of has yet to be rolled out, although there has been more machine learning incorporated into the product on the road to more personalization.

“We think in the next two years we will perfect this,” Roesch-Schlanderer said of the AI service.

That has also changed the makeup of the business: these days the hardware/gym equipment part of the business “remains an incredibly important piece” of the EGYM business, but it also now accounts for only 25% of the company’s revenues.

At a time when consumer-focused fitness businesses have hit a number of bumps — Peloton and its 2 million bike recall in May being the most recent hiccup — EGYM interestingly has been set up as a B2B operation: gyms of all sizes, rather than individual users, have always been its target customers and as of today, there are some 16,000 using EGYM’s products.

In recent years, with the launch and growth of Wellpass, that has extended to building business relationships with corporates and others that offer their employees health and wellness benefits, with some 11,500 of those using EGYM products also part of the Wellpass network. (On that note, Roesch-Schlanderer said that it’s not looking at Affinity as a strategic investor: there have been no conversations so far to bring on the Trump Organisation or its various resort properties as customers.)

While fundraising has been on the rocks overall in the tech sector in the last year, one of the bright spots it seems has been health, and specifically companies building services on the theme of preventative care, using technology to improve on the traditional way of doing things.

Just earlier today, Neko Health — co-founded by Spotify’s Daniel Ek — announced a $65M round for its full-body AI scan with a promise/amibiton of finding issues and optimising care before potential issues become health problems. Last week, Augmedics raised more than $80 million for a new take on spinal surgery that aims to be less invasive and more accurate thanks to AR and AI. We’ve also seen a wave of insure-tech startups that are trying to tap into this concept by providing corporate customers wellness and fitness services to help people get healthy and avoid the more costly medical routes they end up taking when they are not.

“EGYM serves the large and rapidly growing global fitness and healthcare markets with a differentiated technology-centric model,” said
Asad Naqvi, a partner at Affinity Partners, in a statement. “We don’t often come across companies with revenues in the triple-digit millions that are close to doubling in size year-over-year. In EGYM, we are backing an incredible team with a long track record of execution and success, and we look forward to supporting the company on its path to an IPO.”

EGYM, the Munich-based smart fitness startup, raises $225M from Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners by Ingrid Lunden originally published on TechCrunch

Smartphone sales are in decline as handset makers grapple with saturated markets and a tough consumer economic climate. But some are betting on a future where new approaches in design and tech will still find resonance with users. Nothing, the London startup behind the “Phone” smartphone, has closed an investment of $96 million — funding that it will be using to continue scaling its business and lineup of devices, starting with its next smartphone. The Phone (2) — in keeping with its naming scheme — is due to launch in the coming weeks.

Highland Europe is leading the round, with previous backers GV (Google Ventures), EQT Ventures and C Capital also participating. Swedish House Mafia is also getting a strategic stake, one that’s already being put to work. Nothing is teasing features for the new Phone (2) and yesterday it announced that it will have customizable “visual” ringtones, with one of the sound packs for the feature composed by the electronic/house music supergroup.

This investment brings the total raised by the company to $250 million — including two rounds of crowdfunding totaling some $11.5 million. Nothing is not disclosing its valuation. (We’re trying to find out and will update as we learn more.)

The round, critically, is the biggest raised to date by the company — which closed a $70 million Series B in March of last year. From what we understand it had no shortage of inbound interest, despite the double pressures of crunch time in the smartphone market and the ongoing startup investment drought.

Part of the reason for that has been its metrics: sources close to the company confirm to us that it made $200 million in revenues in 2022 and is already on track to exceed that this year. It’s also now sold 1.5 million devices over has launched one handset and two editions of its ear buds and it’s sold 1.5 million devices overall, including 800,000 handsets, from what I understand. (For comparison, in February, CEO and co-founder Carl Pei told us that the company had shifted 1 million devices.)

“Over the last two years, to be able to do all of that in this market, it’s a testament to what this team can achieve,” Tom Hulme of Google Ventures said in an interview. (Hulme also sits on the board of the startup.)

The new Phone device, which is lined for a July 11 launch, will be a key part of Nothing’s strategy to grow. The Phone (1) had a limited release — namely, it did not launch in the U.S. — because of band support. The Phone (2) fixes that and will be offered in the U.S. market. Initially at least, that launch will not be in partnership with any handset makers, we understand.

In terms of Nothing’s future product roadmap, Pei has told us in the past that there will definitely be more hardware form factors to come, without detailing what those might be. The company has a very active community of nearly 46,000 people on Discord who not only chatter about current products but also suggest concepts for what Nothing might build in the future. At least one of these — a smartwatch — was recently shared by Nothing with a hint to “watch this space.”

Another area that Pei recently has been waxing lyrical about is the future of software, so that is another area — services and apps — where Nothing might be looking to do a little something.

Armed with the new funding, it will likely be ramping up its talent base in aid of that. The company currently has 450 employees and only recently started to bring on software engineers alongside its team of hardware specialists.

“In just over two years, we’ve assembled one of the strongest teams in the industry and sold over 1.5 million devices worldwide,” said Pei in a statement. “It’s clear that there’s real demand for an innovative challenger in the consumer tech industry, and with this new round of financing, we’ve never been better positioned to realize our vision to make tech fun again.”

The company’s focus and execution will be key for the next stage.

Highland partner Tony Zappalà, who is leading the round for his firm, said in an interview that he’d been introduced to the team a couple of years ago, but he declined to invest initially.

It was before the launch of its first phone, he recalled, and “When I first met the team I thought it was completely crazy to launch a new phone, and I was negatively predisposed,” he said. “But they managed to launch and make a success of it, selling hundreds of thousands of units, and great reviews.”

Investors believe that there is an opportunity for a viable new player alongside Apple and Samsung, the two that dominate smartphones, followed by a very long tail of smaller producers.

“But not everyone wants an iPhone or a Samsung device,” Zappalà said. “Carl’s thesis is that the smartphone market is huge market, and if you can make a cool product you can still do something really good. This team is doing that that based on an interesting connection between design, usability and relationships with users.” He also pointed out that Pei’s background, previously with OnePlue, gives the company a huge advantage in building and manufacturing hardware.

Carl Pei’s Nothing raises something – $96M – ahead of the launch of its Phone (2) by Ingrid Lunden originally published on TechCrunch

Perhaps you think yourself a talented grillmaster, maybe someone who has mastered a propane, charcoal or even wood-fired BBQ. You’ll be surprised to learn that for a huge percentage of outdoor cooking, there’s an even better way to do things, based on how pro steakhouses make their customers happy, and it’s considerably accessible to home cooks. I’m talking about the Schwank Portable Infrared Grill, a gas-powered outdoor cooker that can offer up perfectly seared steaks with even, ideal internal temps in under 10 minutes. Plus, it can join you at the tailgate.

Basics

You may have heard of infrared grills — their secret sauce is being able to heat up to around 1500 F in just a few minutes. The Schwank has its heating element located in the top of the unit, and then you raise or lower whatever you’re cooking closer or further away from it using a stainless steel grilling plate. The entire device is basically stainless steel, which makes it incredibly sturdy, and also dead simple to clean when you’re done. Its simplicity and smart engineering comes at a price, though: Schwank retails the grill for $1,250 for the propane version, and $1,350 for the one that uses natural gas.

Image Credits: Darrell Etherington

The whole grill weighs 62 lbs, which does kind of stretch the definition of portable (especially since that doesn’t include the propane tank if you opt for that version) but it has two sturdy handles on the side that do make transporting it relatively easy. The official cover includes pass-through cutouts so you can access those handles for easily lugging it around while it’s protected.

Schwank leaves most of the assembly to the factory, so what you get is very easy to quickly put together and get started. The only parts you have to worry about are the ones that also come out easily after the fact for quick cleaning, which includes the shelf assembly, a drip tray, and a liner that protects the inside surfaces.

Optional accessories include the aforementioned cover, a pizza stone and peel, a cutting board, a propane adapter for using camping cylinders, and an apron. The pizza stone helps the grill do double duty easily, because the high temps are perfect for home cooked pizza with terrific crust.

Design and build

As mentioned, there’s a lot of stainless steel involved in the construction of the Schwank grill. It’s great for an outdoor appliance, and really helps when it’s time to clean up. The tech in the Schwank grill is also tested and proven in high-volume commercial steakhouse kitchens, since that’s where the company got its start, providing grills for restaurants including Morton’s Steakhouse, Del Frisco’s and more. The company is also keen to note that its grills are entirely US-made, unlike some of the competition on the market.

Image Credits: Darrell Etherington

You can tell that the Schwank is built to last; it feels like an absolute tank. That does come with the downside of significant weight, but it’s still portable in the sense that you can easily throw it in a trunk and drive it to a park or a parking lot for a tailgate party. All the connections and the heating element itself also seem really intelligently and well-built, and the spark igniter is powered by a replaceable AA battery which should help for long-term survivability and resilience.

While the price tag on the grill might cause some sticker shock, it definitely feels like an outdoor appliance you can count on working for a long, long time.

Performance

The real proof of the Schwank grill’s value comes down to how good it is when it comes to actually preparing food, and luckily, it’s fantastic at that. I can safely say that regardless of your starting aptitude or level of ability, you’re going to be able to make great-tasting food using the Schwank infrared grill — particularly if that food is steak, but not exclusively.

Obviously the first thing I cooked on the Schwank was steak, and it does what used to take me at least an hour with a sous-vide/cast iron combo in literally under 10 minutes. Using the adjustable shelf is incredibly intuitive once you watch a few videos on how long you should leave it at various levels, but basically with most steak around an inch or more thick it’s as easy as putting it up to the top for 2 minutes per side, then lowering it down for another couple minutes to get a perfect medium rare cook with a perfect sear.

[gallery ids="2561485,2561483,2561482,2561480,2561479"]

I’ve made probably a dozen steaks on the Schwank in my time testing it, and I’ve never made a bad one — including the very first. But I quickly got interested in trying other things, too.

The Schwank has handled cod, salmon, porch chops, chicken wings, vegetables and even grocery store frozen breaded chicken fingers with aplomb. It’s a true swiss army knife when it comes to cooking most things — with the one exception being anything that does better with a low-and-slow approach.

Bottom line

There are any number of outdoor cooking appliances vying for your attention, and your cash, and more proliferate all the time. But Schwank’s offering is unique among those for a few reasons, not the least because of its combination of versatility and convenience. And despite it being large for a “portable” device, it’s tiny in terms of its footprint relative to most gas or charcoal grills, so it works well even in small outdoor spaces.

If you’re a steak fan, then there’s no question — Schwank’s grill is a great value. But even if you’re not, give it a look, it just might be what you’re looking for regardless.

Schwank’s Portable Infrared Grill will massively elevate your cook-out game by Darrell Etherington originally published on TechCrunch

Asus is stretching the boundaries of what’s possible with thin and light portable PCs, and the 2023 Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED sets a high bar for what’s possible in an ultraportable. The computer weighs in at just 2.2 lbs, and it’s only 0.39 inches thick — small enough that it’s a negligible addition to any backpack or travel bag, while offering a lot of power to help satisfy the workload requirements of a vast majority of people.

Basics

The Zenbook S 13 OLED for this year resembles the one that Asus released in 2022, but comes with enough significant differences that they’re really fairly distinct machines. The biggest difference is arguably the processor, since the 2023 version uses a 13th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and last year’s version sports an AMD Ryzen 7 6800 CPU. The other major difference comes in the case, which has a slimmer bottom half, which necessitated a keyboard switch. The display on the 2023 version also doesn’t support pen or touch input, whereas the Ryzen-powered 2022 Zenbook S does.

It’s a little bit more expensive than the Ryzen version was, starting at $1,399 rather than $1,299, but $100 difference isn’t really significant and you still get a lot of computer for the price.

Image Credits: Darrell Etherington

The switch to Intel means you also get two Thunderbolt 4 ports, vs. the USB 3.0 C-type ports on the last version. There’s also one USB A port, a full size HDMI connector and a 3.5mm audio jack. The trackpad is bigger — I’d call it downright expansive now — but it does drop the nifty trick of previous Zenbooks of having the trackpad double as a numpad via a capacitive button press.

Image Credits: Darrell Etherington

Asus estimates battery life for the 2023 Zenbook S 13 OLED at up to 14 hours, but of course that’s going to depend on what you’re doing with it (more on how it actually fares in the performance section below). The 2.8K HDR OLED display is capable of a max brightness of 550 nits, and it offers 100% DCI-P3 color gamut coverage. In the box, you get a 65w USB charger, and a sleeve-style case for extra protection.

Design and build

Asus has done a great job with the aesthetics of the Zenbook lineup over the past couple of years, and the 2023 Zenbook S 13 OLED is no exception. It features an eye-catching, contrast-colored top case that has a finish that evokes a matte patterned rock, and the palmrest and keyboard surround are made of a recycled magnesium-aluminum alloy that feels great to touch. This is already the only PC notebook that I’ve received compliments from observers about, which says a lot about the design choices made here on a purely superficial level.

Despite being so thin and light, the Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED also still feels remarkably durable and solid. Asus says it meets US MIL-STD-810H military-grade standards for durability, and while I didn’t put it through anywhere near that kind of rigorous testing, I can attest that it stook up remarkably well to both indoor and outdoor home use, as well as to travel without any extra effort given to protecting or babying it during transit.

Image Credits: Darrell Etherington

The port loadout here is pretty ideal, with a range of options for accessories new and old. If there was anything to complain about here, it’d be the lack of an SD or microSD slot, but that’s understandable given how much focus Asus placed on making this the thinnest and lightest laptop possible. Speaking of that, it’s really remarkable to pick this thing up and see just how light it is: It even makes last year’s model feel a bit bulky, despite the fact that it’s only about 0.13 lbs heavier.

Features and performance

The 13th gen Intel chip powering the 2023 Zenbook S 13 provides plenty of pep, and it comes with 16GB of onboard memory and a fast 1TB SSD so it’ll never feel pokey. the trade-off for the power comes in the form of heat, which Asus mostly effectively dissipates with the onboard fan system. ‘Mostly’ being the key word, however. The notebook can get quite hot, especially around the back top middle of the bottom panel, and that can be hot enough that you might experience some discomfort using it as an actual laptop while wearing shorts. The heat seems only to be short-lived even when it does build up, however, even when using a more performance-oriented power profile and using an application like Photoshop as well as multiple browser tabs.

Image Credits: Darrell Etherington

Where some users might have more of a problem is with the fan noise: The 2023 Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED can unfortunately make quite a bit of it, and it’s not so much that it’s loud, but that it’s fairly high-pitched. In a quiet room, this can result in a quite noticeable whine, which may not be ideal either for the user or for anyone sitting in close proximity to them. The good news is that if you have any decent level of ambient noise at all – if you’re at a coffee shop or outdoors, for instance, the noise essentially disappears entirely.

These issues are obviously going to be more of a problem for anyone who aims to use this computer for gaming, graphics work or anything else that’s going to tax the processor or integrated GPU: I took it on a few work trips and used it during five and six hour flights for my standard workload, which consists primarily of browser tabs and Photoshop, and didn’t have any issue with the noise in those settings.

The Zenbook did have impressive battery life — under real-world use conditions, I obviously wasn’t getting 13 hours, but I was getting around 10 on average which is more than enough for a work and play laptop.

Image Credits: Darrell Etherington

Bottom line

For me, the 2023 Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED is very nearly the perfect all-around PC — it’s easily the best for traveling, given its slim form factor and decently long-lived battery, along with that amazing, gorgeous display, It transitions perfectly between knocking out emails and spreadsheets, and streaming Netflix or Disney+ shows in vivid, beautiful, vibrant color with full Dolby Vision support.

As an owner of the Ryzen-powered 2022 model, there are some things I miss about that version, including less noticeable fan noise, touch and pen input, and keys with deeper keystroke depth. But this version adds a lot, including the ability to connect to Thunderbolt 4 accessories including external GPUs, and it takes the cake when it comes to pure portability.

The 2023 Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED is a pint-sized powerhouse with a gorgeous display by Darrell Etherington originally published on TechCrunch

At WWDC this week, Apple revealed its new Vision Pro headset, a platform it described as the advent of spatial computing. The company clearly put a lot of work into building Vision Pro, and VisionOS, the software that powers it, but is it as revolutionary as Apple marketing would have you believe? Today, Darrell is joined by Brian Heater to talk about Apple Vision Pro, and what the future might hold for spatial computing.

Articles from the episode:

• Fidelity has cut Reddit valuation by 41% since 2021 investment
• Character.AI, the a16z-backed chatbot startup, tops 1.7M installs in first week
• First impressions: Yes, Apple Vision Pro works and yes, it’s good
• Apple WWDC 2023: Everything announced from the Apple Vision Pro to iOS 17, MacBook Air and more

The TechCrunch Podcast posts every Friday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcasts: Equity, Found and Chain Reaction.

Putting the ‘Pro’ in Apple Vision Pro and other TC news by Darrell Etherington originally published on TechCrunch

Apple unveiled its new Vision Pro augmented reality headset on Monday during its annual WWDC keynote, along with visionOS, the operating system that’ll power it. The hardware looked extremely impressive, and if the highly-polished demos of how the software will work at all reflect what it’s like to use one in person, then this will be an amazing device that truly exceeds the performance and expectations of anything that has come before it in AR. But even if it works exactly as well as Apple would have you believe from its highly-produced debut, and even if it ships next year as planned and people can go ahead and buy it, the vision that Apple’s selling here doesn’t really exist in one fundamental way — owing to the tearjerking $3,499 price tag Apple Vision Pro carries alongside its laundry list of impressive specs.

Expectations were high for the final price of Apple’s headset leading up to this event, but ‘high’ generally meant estimates around the $2,000 mark, or up to $2,500 for some. $3,499 basically exceeds any predictions, and had the effect of instantly deflating most of the excitement and anticipation from those of us in the newsroom watching the event unfold live and commenting on the news via our shared Slack channel. Apple did a fantastic job with the lead-up — so much so that it convinced more than a few of us that this was a product we wanted (“needed,” we said somewhat facetiously) in our lives. But the price reveal turned any ‘would buy’ in the room into a ‘definitely not’ without hesitation.

Looking back at the technical specifications Apple detailed for Vision Pro in the presentation before it dropped the curtain on the price, you can definitely see why it costs that much. The displays alone, two micro-OLED screens that can provide true 4K resolution, are probably jaw-droppingly pricey, let along the fancy custom built-in speakers, lidar space sensing, dual onboard custom processors and so much more. Apple Vision Pro is “the most advanced personal electronics device ever” as Apple put it during the presentation, another slide that, when considered now, was definitely put in there to help take away some of the sticker shock of the pricing.

The pricing means this will appeal to only a cadre of buyers that can afford to spend lavishly on something that, by Apple’s own admission, seems intended to primarily augment and supplement the use of your other pricey kit, including the iPhone and Mac (though at least it isn’t reliant on either for functioning). It’s beyond even stretch range for a lot of tech-forward early adopters who want to get in on the ground floor of something new and exciting.

All that said, it’s not like there isn’t precedent for something that’s out of reach for most laying the groundwork for tech that becomes essentially fundamental for all in the future: The original IBM PC introduced in 1981 retailed for $1,565 (or almost double that for a properly specced out version) which is over $5,000 in today’s dollars. Personal computers were rather expensive for quite a while before benefitting from pricing curves as they grew in popularity.

Apple’s doing a lot here that’s custom, that’s extremely advanced, and that doesn’t scale affordably given the production methods available now. All of that could change, especially with a robust developer story — something this announcement, and the initial slate of sales of this hardware, are definitely intended to encourage. But all that means that what Apple showed during its official unveiling today wasn’t an accurate reflection of a reality any of us will know anytime soon; at best it’s a vision likely five years out in terms of true mass market appeal, providing all the pieces fall into place correctly between now and then.

Apple’s Vision Pro headset seems too good to be real — because it basically is by Darrell Etherington originally published on TechCrunch