Popular fitness wearable maker Fitbit usually launches fitness and activity trackers, but now the company has finally introduced its first real smartwatch to compete with Samsung's Gear line of smartwatch, Apple Watch, and Android Wear 2.0 smartwatches.
Dubbed Ionic it runs home-grown operating system called FitbitOS and includes an App Gallery, that lets users select the apps and clock faces. The App Gallery also offers a range of fitness apps from Fitbit, as well as popular apps like Pandora, Starbucks, Starva and AccuWeather.
The Fitbit Ionic has a 1.4-inch (348 x 250 pixel) rectangular display with up to 1,000 nits of brightness, making it sunlight readable. It offers personalized guidance and on-device dynamic workouts to motivate reach your goals.
The smartwatch features automatic activity & sleep tracking, GPS for outdoor fitness tracking, all-day heart rate tracking, SpO2 sensor (for estimating blood oxygen levels), swim tracking, contactless payment and smart notifications (receive call, text and callender alerts and more). It also has an on-board music player thanks to the 2.5GB of native storage, that can store more than 300 songs.
It is water resistant for up to 50 meters, and promises up to four days of battery life, or up to 10 hours with GPS and music use. The smartwatch will be offered in small and large sizes in Blue Gray band with Silver Gray case, Slate Blue Band with Burnt Orange case and Charcol band with Smoke Gray case.
The Fitbit Ionic is pricedt at$299.95 (Rs. 19,000), and will be available in October 2017.
Fitbit is launching the Alta HR, world's slimmest fitness tracker with heart rate sensor in India. It is an upgrade over the Alta fitness tracker and comes with PurePlus heart rate sensor, improved battery life and new sleep monitoring capabilities.
The Fitbit Alta HR is priced at Rs. 14,999 and is available online exclusive on Amazon India. It will also be available via Reliance Digital, Croma, Helios, Juma and Vijay Sales stores across the country from April 16. It comes with interchange bands in Black, Blue with Grey and Fuchsia colors, and premium materials including classic bands, luxe leather bands and luxe metal bracelet priced at Rs. 2,999, Rs. 5,999 and Rs. 9,999 respectively. There's also a Speciad Edition Alta HR priced at Rs. 16,999, that comes in Gun Metal and Rose Gold.
As mentioned earlier, the Alta HR is an upgrade to the Alta fitness tracker. It comes with PurePulse heart rate technology, which can monitor you heart rate continuously for more accurate calorie tracking.
It also gets two new sleep monitoring tools like Sleep Stages and Sleep Insights via the Fitbit app, which provides deeper insight of your sleep quality. Sleep Stages utilizes heart rate variability to estimate the amount of time you spend in light, deep and REM sleep, as well as time awake each night, to better under stand your sleep quality. Sleep Insights uses Fitbit data to offer personalized guidance on how to improve sleep quality.
The battery life of the Alta HR has got a bump, and promises seven days of run time, compared to five offered by Alta.
The Alta HR sports an OLED display which displays time/date, fitness stats and smartphone notifications. Much like other fitness tracker, Alta HR can can track steps taken, distance traveled, calories burned, active minutes and motivate to reach goals. It can also provide reminders to move and comes with a feature called SmartTrack to automatically track exercise activities like walking, running, cycling, elliptical, sports and aerobic workouts in the Fitbit app, and gives you credit for reaching your weekly goals.
Fitbit is upgrading its Alta fitness tracker, with new features and improved battery life. Called Alta HR, the new fitness tracker has inbuilt PurePulse heart rate technology, which can monitor you heart rate continuously for more accurate calorie tracking. Fitbit also claims it to be the world's slimmest fitness tracker. Apart from addition of heart rate sensor, the Alta HR also gets improved sleep monitoring capabilities.
The fitness tracker gets two new sleep-monitoring tools, Sleep Stages and Sleep Insights via the Fitbit app (Android and iOS) that provides deeper insight to your sleep quality. Sleep Stages utilizes heart rate variability to estimate the amount of time you spen in light, deep and REM sleep, as well as time awake each night, to better under stand your sleep quality. Sleep Insights uses Fitbit data to offer personaolized guidance on how to improve sleep quality.
The Sleep Stages and Sleep Insights tool will also be available for other Fitbit devices as well. Sleep Stages will also work with Fitbit Blaze and Charge 2, while the Sleep Insights will be available on all Fitbit devices. The new features will be available globally in Spring 2017.
The new fitness tracker also gets improved battery life promising up to seven days of battery life vs five days offered by Fitbit Alta.
Besides these new additions, the other functions of Fitbit Alta HR is same as its predecessor. It can track steps taken, distance traveled, calories burned, active minutes and motivate to reach goals. It can also provide reminders to move and comes with a feature called SmartTrack to automatically track exercise activities like walking, running, cycling, elliptical, sports and aerobic workouts in the Fitbit app, and gives you credit for reaching your weekly goals.
The Fitbit Alta HR has an OLED display which displays time/date, fitness stats and smartphone notifications. It comes with interchangable bands in multiple colors and premium materials, allowing users to customize the fitness tracker the way they seem fit.
The Fitbit Alta HR will available for pre-order globally soon. In India, the Altra HR is priced at Rs. 14,999, and will be up for pre-order through Amazon India from March 15 to 31, and will go on sale from April 1. From April 16 on-wards it will be available across major retailers in the country including Reliance Digital, Crome, Helios, Jumbo and Vijay Sales. It comes in Black, Blue Gray, Fuchsia and Coral.
There's also a Special Edition Alta HR which comes in Gun Metal and Rose Gold, and carries a price tag of Rs. 16,999. The classic fitness bands are piced at Rs. 2,999 while luxe leather bands, and luxe metal bracelet will set you back by Rs. 5,999 and Rs. 9,999 respectively.
U.S pricing and availability details
The Alt HR is now up for pre-order on Fitbit.com for $149.95. In early April 2017, Alta HR will be available online and in stores worldwide, including major North American retailers such as Amazon.com, Best Buy, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Nordstrom, Target, REI and Verizon. The Special Edition Alta HR is priced at $180, while the classic bands, luxe leather bands and luxe metal bracelet are priced $30, $60 and $100 respectively.
Following reports, Fitness wearable maker Fitbit on Wednesday officially announced that it is acquiring specific assets of Pebble that includes key personnel and intellectual property related to software and firmware development.
Pebble also confirmed the deal in a separate statement, noting that it will no longer operate as an independent company. It will shut down operations and no longer make smartwatches, selling software and other assets to Fitbit. "many members of Team Pebble will be joining the Fitbit family to continue their work on wearable software platforms." said Pebble
However, the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but according to Bloomberg, the deal is worth $40 million (Rs. 270 crores).
"With this acquisition, we're well positioned to accelerate the expansion of our platform and ecosystem to make Fitbit a vital part of daily life for a wider set of consumers, as well as build the tools healthcare providers, insurers and employers need to more meaningfully integrate wearable technology into preventative and chronic care." said Fitbit
The deal is not looking good for Pebble's customers. Pebble has cancelled orders for the upcoming Pebble Time 2 and Pebble Core and mentions that warranty support is no longer available. Full refund will be issued to Kickstarter backers who are awaiting for their orders within four to eight weeks.
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Smartwatch pioneer and multi-million dollar gem of crowdfunding website Kickstarter, Pebble forayed into the wearable market in 2012 with the Pebble e-ink smartwatch. Now according to a report from The Information and Financial Times, popular fitness brand Fitbit is close to buying Pebble.
This was also confirmed by the Verge. The deal is said to be in closing stages and will soon be locked, the report adds citing people close to the deal.
That's not all, after the deal is closed, the Pebble brand will be reportedly phased out and all its intellectual property including their software platform, Pebble OS will be owned by Fitbit. The report citing sources close to the matter, says Fitbit's acquisition is taking place for a relatively "small amount" between $34 and $40 million, despite having successful Kickstarter campaigns.
It's worth mentioning that before the launch of Pebble 2, Intel offered $70 million to buy Pebble, but the offer was refused. Back in 2015, Citizen also showed its interest to buy Pebble for $270 million, but the deal was rejected by Pebble's CEO Eric Migicovsky.
The deal comes at a time when both Pebble and Fitbit are facing declining sales in wearables market. Overall, the wearable market is seeing a decline this year. Brand like Jawbone, once Fitbit's biggest rival has been struggling in recent months, whereas, Microsoft axed its health tracker Band two months ago. Apple and various Android Wear smartwatch manufacturer also saw decline in sales as well.
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Fitbit has updated two of its popular Flex and Charge HR fitness tracker. Dubbed Flex 2 and Charge 2, the fitness wearable sports a sleek design and boasts enhanced fitness tracking features.
The Flex 2 is claimed to be Fitbit's first 'swim proof' model and can survive in up to 50-metres of water. The fitness tracker can be worn on silicone bands, bracelets or pendants. It doesn't have a display, instead sports a five LED color-coded lights and offers vibrating alert to notify you of incoming calls, messages and more from your smartphone. It comes with a feature called Fitbit Smart Track, that allows the wearable to automatically recognize when you've started a sports activity. It is rated to deliver five days of battery life.
The Flex 2 is priced at Rs. 9,499 and for the classic fitness band model that comes in in black, lavender, magenta or navy. Optional bands in bluish pink, Gray, Navy Blue and yellow are coming soon at Rs. 2,999. Bangle accessory in gold, rose gold and silver stainless steel will come soon at Rs. 9,999 and Rs. 8,999 respectively. The pendant accessory comes in gold and sliver stainless steel colors and are priced at Rs. 9,999 and Rs. 7,999 respectively.
The Fitbit Charge 2 has a 1.5-inch display and shows stats such as step takes, heart rate, active time, sleep monitoring and more. It uses connected GPS to pair with the smartphone's GPS to calculate distant and track your running. It also reminds you to move every hour, and has a Relax mode that measure breathing. The wearable comes with interchangeable straps and the battery should last for up to five days.
Priced at Rs. 14,999, the Charge 2 comes with classic fitness band in black, blue, plum or teal hues. The Luxe premium leather accessory band in blush pink, brown and indigo are priced at Rs. 6,999 and the Special edition series in gun metal and rose gold will soon be available for Rs. 16,999.
The Fitbit Flex 2 and Charge 2 are available for pre-order on Fitbit.com and exclusively on Amazon India. Fitbit Flex 2 will be available in October, while the Charge 2 will be available in late September at major retail stores across the country.
Fitbit has launched its new smart fitness watch called Fitbit Blaze in India. Blaze is Fitbit's first wearable product to sport a color touch screen with a variety of clock faces for customization.
Blaze's fitness tracking capabilities include tracking steps, distance, calories intake, floors climbed and keeps tabs of your sleep, and can also wake you up with a silent alarm. It supports personal training app Fitstar that offers onscreen workouts, connected GPS, multi-sport mode (to track runs, cardio, cross training, biking and more), PurePulse heart tracking and SmartTrack automatic exercise recognition.
When Blaze, pairs with compatible devices (Android, iOS & Windows Phone), it provides notification for texts, calls and calendar events via on-screen message and vibration alert. You can also accept and reject calls, control music playback from a connected device using the smartwatch. On a single charge it offers a battery life of five days.
The Fitbit Blaze is priced at Rs. 19,999 and is now exclusively available via Amazon India. It comes in two sizes - small and large, and in three color options Black & Silver, Blue & Silver and Plus & Silver.
Popular wearable fitness-tracking device maker, Fitbit has announced its new slim, sleek and fashionable fitness tracker, the Alta, with easy customization and advanced health and fitness features. It has a satin finish, stainless steel body and comes with a range of optional interchangeable bands in multiple colors and premium materials.
The Fitbit Alta will track your steps, distance, calories burned and active minutes as well as remind you to move when you need to be bit more active. It comes with a feature called SmartTrack that lets you keep track of the exercise and gives you credit for reaching your weekly goals. It promises five days of battery life on a single charge, with a charge time of one to two hours.
The fitness tracker sports a OLED display that shows your activity stats and has a customizable clock face that will light up when you tap. It pairs with compatible device (Android, iOS and Windows) via app through Bluetooth and offer smart notifications, so that you will be notified when you receive call, text and or have calendar events on your mobile phone. Users will be notified in two ways- on-screen messages or a gentle vibrating alert.
The Fitbit Alta is priced at $130 and is available for pre-order from Fitbit.com and tomorrow at major North American retailers including Amazon, BestBuy, Target, Walmart and more. It will available in North America in March, followed by a global release in April 2016.
At launch the Alta will be available in black, blue, teal or plum fitness band with a satin finish, silver stainless steel tracker, with gold stainless steel tracker coming later. It also comes with several accessories that have to be purchased seperately - Luxe soft, premium hide leather bands available in blush pink and graphite colors priced at $59.95, Classic fitness band in black, blue, teal and plum available at $29.95. The premium looking stainless steel silver bangle is available at an additional cost of $99.95 and the gold bangle will be available later.
Via | Source
Fitbit has introduced its new smart fitness watch, the Blaze. It is the first Fitbit wearable product to sports a color touch screen with a variety of clock faces for customization on offer. It has a modular design and the tracker can be easily removed and can be inserted into a new frame. Also on offer are various interchangable bands made of leather, stainless steel and elastomer.
The Fitbit Blaze comes with fitness tracking abilities and for this it offers Fitstar by Fitbit onscreen workouts, connected GPS, a multi-sport mode, PurePulse rate heart tracking and SmartTrack automatic exercise recognition. It can also track sleep and can wake up with a silent alarm.
When paired with compatible device (Android, iOS and Windows 10 Mobile), it is capable of relaying notifications for texts, calls and calendars via on-screen message and vibration alerts. You can also accept and reject calls directly from the blaze and control music playback from a connected device. It offers up to five days of battery life on a single charge.
The Fitbit Blaze is priced at $199.95 (Rs. 13,000) and is now up for pre-order, and will be available in March 2016. It will also release in India in March and will cost Rs. 19,999. It comes in blue, black and plum bands.
Fitbit is also offering a range of accessories for the Blaze. The Classic
high-performance elastomer bands available in black, blue and plum is
priced at $29.95, Luxe genuine leather bands with stainless steel
display frames in black, mist grey and camel are priced at $99.95 and
the Luxe stainless steel link band with a stainless steel display frame
in silver is priced at $129.95.
