Beam Technologies, maker of the Beam Brush smartphone app-enabled toothbrush, has halved the retail price of its signature product in an attempt to boost sales. The Louisville, Ky.-based startup announced the news Wednesday in an e-mail to potential customers. Correction: The original version of this article inaccurately attributed the price change to slow sales. Beam Brush says its sales to date have actually exceeded its expectations.

The Beam Brush now is selling for $24.99, down from the launch price of $49.99 in January.

"We wanted to put the manual version in a cost category closer to what people are used to paying" for mass-marketed electric toothbrushes, CEO Alex Frommeyer explains to MobiHealthNews. A quick check online revealed that the Oral-B Vitality Dual Clean rechargeable electric toothbrush goes for about $25, while several Philips Sonicare models are priced at above $100. An Arm and Hammer Spinbrush can be had through discounters for less than $10.

Frommeyer says that feedback through formal focus groups and "ongoing conversation" via social media convinced him to lower the price.

Beam Brush actually is a manual toothbrush with an embedded sensor that measures brushing duration, including time spent in each quadrant of the mouth. It sends data over a Bluetooth connection to an FDA-cleared companion Android or Apple iOS app that tracks individual brushing habits. Users then can share the information electronically with their dentists.

The price of replacement brush heads remains $3.99, according to Frommeyer.