XOSS Sprint GPS Cycling Computer, A Wahoo Elemnt Knockoff?
Today, as I scrolled through my Google News feed like I do everyday, I ended up with this gem from Forbes.com, “How China’s Top Cycling App Plans To Enter U.S. Market Via A Cycling Computer”. The headline certainly caught my attention as I am a devout STRAVA user and an owner of Wahoo’s GPS Cycling Computer, The Elemnt Bolt.
As I waited for the page to load (all of 2 seconds), I asked myself how can it be.. and who’s dumb enough to enter the strong U.S. market dominated by Garmin and Wahoo Fitness (and the others)? Well, eventually I learned Mincheng Jiang is crazy enough to try and compete with his company Xing Zhe (Chinese for “mobile person”), which he started in 2013, with a cycling app, Xing Zhe. The article does go on to say that as more and more users used the app, him and his team acknowledged the limitations of the app and set out to build a cycling computer.
Sounds like a great story. But.. once I got through the opening paragraphs, I soon realized the XOSS Sprint looked awfully close to Wahoo’s Elemnt and Elemnt Bolt. The screen, the layout, and the functions look very similar. Below is the comparison table that is listed on their KickStarter Campaign. As I type this sentence, >800 backers have funded 159K/100K goal.. smh..
Below XOSS Sprint’s project timeline. Just to note, Wahoo released their Elemnt around September 2015.
What do you think? Is it a copy of Wahoo’s Elemnt?
-neverbikealone
