Roger Fingas
New images are said to depict Fitbit's first full-scale smartwatch, as well as its first set of Bluetooth earbuds — both apparently intended to compete with Apple.
The watch was "originally planned for this spring to likely get ahead of whenever Apple plans their normal fall announcement," a source informed Yahoo Finance. The device has allegedly been delayed until the fall because of hardware issues, including GPS signal and waterproofing. It may also lack a planned app store due to an SDK not being ready in time.
The $300 product is expected to offer many of the same features of the Apple Watch Series 2, including GPS, a heart rate sensor, an aluminum unibody shell, and a display with 1,000 nits of brightness. It should even include some form of wireless payments.
Two distinctive features will be the ability to cache and play music from Pandora — which recently launched its Premium on-demand service — plus a four-day battery life. The Apple Watch typically runs for a day or less on a charge.
Fitbit's earbuds should ship alongside the new watch for $150, resembling Apple's BeatsX headphones in draping around the neck. Two colors should be available, "Nightfall Blue" and "Lunar Gray."
A "Series 3" Apple Watch is expected to be announced later this year. Some rumored features include a faster processor, a better battery, and possibly built-in 4G cellular data, which would theoretically enable full independence from an iPhone.
Wesley Hilliard
Malcolm Owen
Christine McKee
Andrew Orr
William Gallagher
20 Comments
This will make a great FitBit phone accessory.
Wait...
FitBitPay? I don't think so.
While I do understand why companies tend to put their logo on products with a "in your face" attitude (marketing-1d10ts), I will never understand why customers tolerate this. (Same as with most Android-phones).
Eeew...
I support all competitors in this space as I believe Apple is quickly blowing past everyone and making the space not viable for anyone else. Especially as Apple is using their stockpile of money for biosensors. That's expensive stuff. It's great and all that Apple is going this direction, but competition is always a good thing. No way Fitbit can ever catch up. It seems only Google can take up that mantle as the Watch competitor, but it's not looking good. Speaking of not looking good, that new Fitbit watch.