Brand News #11
It had been long rumored that Fitbit is getting into the smart watch business for a while. Enter the Ionic, and the rumor is becoming a reality very soon.
However, it is a bit confusing to note that Fitbit is diving into the smartwatch space at a time when rivals like Apple Watch have already had a slice of the market. But the company is betting big on its years of fitness tracking expertise across a plethora of devices to make up for the time lost.
The Ionic starts at a price tag of about Rs. 19,000 which pits it at par with the Apple Watch series 1. It sports aluminum casing in 38.6 mm size, integrated GPS for fitness tracking, water resistance rating upto 50 m an has an in-built heart rate sensor. However, the icing on the cake would probably be the battery which can last for up to 4 days which is much higher when compared to Android and Apple devices. With 2.5 GB of internal storage, you can keep all the songs that you want for your fitness sessions.
The heart of the Fitbit device is also changing with a much needed software upgrade in the form of Fitbit OS. It is supposed to support third-party apps and can access all the sensors of the Ionic to churn out useful information. Contact less payment is also yet another innovation made possible by the new OS.
The heart-rate sensor in the Ionic also gets an upgrade in the form of new tri-wave sensor and Fitbit says that it will track heart rate more accurately for all outdoor activities by monitoring the relative oxygen saturation levels in the blood.
The company is also making new in-roads into designing the apps better with a major over-haul of Fitstar app which will now be known by the name Fitbit Coach. This new app will offer audio coaching sessions, guided health programs etc for which the user can set difficulty levels and focus on specific workout routines.
It will be interesting to see how Apple and Android will react with the entry of a new but experienced challenger in the form of Ionic.
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