Fitness trackers are big business now that the wearables market is well and truly taking off. But with the likes of Samsung’s Gear smartwatches, Sony’s Smartwatch 3 and Motorola’s Moto 360 all including heart rate sensing and fitness tech into their smartwatches is there still a place for a dedicated fitness trackers?
Fitbit certainly seems to think so, or at least the latest leaked products set to be launched by the company seem to indicate that it does.
According to leaked marketing materials sent to Gizmodo, the two new bands are called the Fitbit Charge and the Charge HR with the latter incorporating a heart rate monitor giving rise to the rather less-than-creative two letter acronym at the end of its name. The Charge looks very similar to the Fitbit Force, which was pulled off of the shelves after a significant number of users complained about skin irritation and rashes while wearing the band.
The Charge will be able to track steps, distance, calories burned, floors climbed, active minutes and will be able to connect to smartphones to caller ID along with stats and the time on its built in display. Like the Jawbone UP 24 it will monitors sleep quality and will incorporate a silent, vibrating alarm into its water resistant body. The Charge HR will include the company’s proprietary PurePulse continuous heart rate monitoring into the band adding 24/7 heart rate stats to those of the regular Charge.
Pricing and battery life claims aren’t available yet, but a Russian retailer has listed the Charge and Charge HR at $185 (R2 030) and $220 (R2 425) respectively which is much higher than the Force when it was announced at $130 (R1 430).
Perhaps the pricing is a bit over eager from the retailer and not indicative of a final retail price.
[Source, Images – Gizmodo]
