Fitbit reveals new smartwatch Leave a comment

The innovator in wearable devices is hoping the Fitbit smartwatch will collect interest in its whole and a faculty category that’s lost some attractiveness.

Fitbits”space-themed” smartwatch which cost $299.95 is $30 over the start price for the Apple Watch,Fitbits biggest rival. that’s a hefty worth to boost of people administrative body may already own a smartwatch or unit cautious regarding investment in one for the first time.

The device has everything you’d expect from a fitness tracker: sleep and activity following, a pulse monitor, GPS integration, sensible notifications and long battery life — one of its biggest dealing points. it’s aiming to last up to four days, compared with eighteen hours for the Apple Watch.

The waterproof Ionic comes sprinkled with additions for fitness fanatics, too. there’s a tool that measures number eight at intervals the blood and customised workouts that adapt to your feedback.

You can work toward goals — love running a mile faster — hear audio work and store up to a few hundred songs on the device. The Ionic together choices a payments system called Fitbit Pay that permits you to regulator the device at checkout to pay.
The Ionic is Fitbit’s first product with every hardware and package, Fitbit OS, designed in house. Jonah Becker, chairwoman of favor, aforesaid the device was galvanized by the conception of a “space journey” and “progressive thinking that gets you to a destination.”

“The house theme influences the color surface,” aforesaid Becker, referencing the orange, blue and steel color decisions. “Think regarding ‘The Martian’ … admit Elon Musk colonizing Mars … and so the icy landscape of ‘Interstellar.'”
The Ionic choices a light-weight casing fancied from number thirteen and a colored spherical glass bit screen.

The company flirted with a smartwatch before with the Fitbit Blaze. but chief in operation officer James Park previously aforesaid the category didn’t add up for the company — that smartwatches lacked “purpose.” presently it’s changed its mind.

“We’re not returning into the category for the sake of returning into the category,” Park told a gaggle of reporters in new york city last week. “For us, there’s a purpose. we’ve got an inclination to feel really powerfully that smartwatches unit a platform for North yank country to deliver the foremost powerful tools the market has seen. The larger kind issue of smartwatches versus activity and fitness trackers modify North yank country to integrate additional advanced sensors and provide richer displays and user interfaces.”

But Fitbit has catching up to do and do. Fitness tracker unit a $10 billion market, which is predicted to double in coming years, per IDC. but shipments of wearables were together down late last year compared with the year before.

Experts believe the category will surge another time once smartwatches unit freed from the smartphone. The Ionic, a bit like the Apple Watch, wants an accurate from a smartphone, but Fitbit plans to launch a version next year that may not. and so the pay feature already suggests that you’re going to be able to leave your pocketbook reception.
The Ionic together comes with apps from Starbucks and AccuWeather and music streaming from Pandora. different developers can begin building apps for the Ionic starting in September.

Apple  is anticipated to launch a cellular version next month.
Apple together recently reportable its best quarter still for wearables. Fitbit’s stock has plunged hour at intervals the past year and presently trades seventieth below the initial public giving worth. still it still holds the No. one spot for health app downloads on iTunes and robot.

In addition to the Ionic smartwatch, the company visible its first Bluetooth wireless earbuds and a second version of the popular Aria sensible scale. It together promoted future Ionic choices, still as symptom following, and its vision for illness screening and waiting for analysis.

Fitbit is action fashion, too. just like the Fitbit Charge and Alta, you will be able to swap out bands and upgrade to premium decisions like animal product ($29.95 each). Fashion brands like Fossil, and its sub-brands like Kate Spade, Emporio Armani and Michael Kors — have facet sensible choices to accessories.

Fitbit is clearly late to the smartwatch race, and it’s unclear whether or not or not the Ionic ar enough to repair that. but Park aforesaid he’s assured Fitbit is that the “best positioned company to possess the foremost profound impact on people’s health outside of the help system.”