The wrist seems to be the next hotspot that tech companies want to monetize. There have been numerous companies working on smartwatch concepts, and Samsung recently released its Samsung Galaxy Gear version. However, smartwatches aren’t the only devices targeting consumers’ wrists. As more people want to reach their fitness goals, companies like Nike, Jawbone and Fitbit have been thriving with fitness tracking devices. Now Fitbit has introduced a new product, the Fitbit Force, that blends the fitness tracker with smartwatch capabilities. According to abcnews.com:
“There is about to be a big battle for your wrist, and Fitbit, one of the major pioneers in the fitness tracker space, is ready with a brand new soldier. Today, the company is introducing the $129.95 Fitbit Force, a bracelet that combines the company’s expertise in digital fitness tracking with some basic smartwatch functionality.
“The Force looks a lot like the company’s Fitbit Flex bracelet, but has a new small OLED screen right on the band so you can easily tell the time and how many steps you have taken or how many miles you’ve gone. Like Fitbit’s Flex bracelet and its Zip and One trackers, which you can clip to a pair of pants, the device tracks the steps you’ve taken, the distance you’ve gone, the calories you’ve burned, the floors or stairs you’ve climbed, and even how long you have slept.”
Although the new Fitbit Force looks similar to the older Fitbit Flex with a display, there are some new cool features in the Force. As reported by theverge.com:
“Different from the Flex, Fitbit designed the Force as a single, contained unit. While the Flex required you to remove the actual tracking unit from the wristband to charge and sync with your computer, the Force has a proprietary charging port right on it, and it can sync with your computer wirelessly with the new USB dongle. It can also still sync with your Android or iOS device over Bluetooth 4.0, so there are fewer reasons than ever to actually take the thing off of your wrist.
“On top of the better design, the Force adds yet another piece of tracking data to your fitness profile: the new altimeter can measure how many flights of stairs you walked up and down during the day. The device is smart enough to tie this data directly to when you are actually taking steps up stairs — riding up and down in an elevator won’t throw it off, for instance.”
Fitbit is definitely one of the leading companies in fitness trackers. Now they are getting ahead of the curve of device convergence by producing a gadget that can be considered a smartwatch as well as a fitness tracker.
Check out the Fitbit Force in the video below.
