We live in an extremely connected society these days – our homes can be connected to an app on our smartphones, where we can then choose to turn on the lights and heating (or air conditioning) remotely, ensuring that we will arrive home to a comfortable setting and environment. How about our cars? They too, are connected via the likes of a smart dashboard for the newer models, but a piece of regular sports equipment like a racquet? This makes the Babolat Play unique, as it holds the distinction of being the first connected racquet in the world.
The full name of this tennis racquet is the Babolat Play Pure Drive, where it will first launch in the US later this December before a global distribution kicks off in 2014. The whole idea of the Babolat Play is to gather the right kind of data in order to quantify your game and skills, ensuring that you can take the relevant and necessary steps to improve on your technique and strokes for future games. Not only that, you can also share your information with other Babolat Play owners, and the kind of information collected include shot power and ball impact location (sweet spot), the number of strokes (forehand, backhand, serve, smash), spin level, total and effective play time, endurance, technique, consistency, energy and rallies. The asking price for such a special racquet? $399. [Press Release]
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