Fitness lovers the world over have been eagerly anticipating the launch of Fitbit’s First Smartwatch much publicized first full-fledged smart watch and Bluetooth headphones. However, sources close to the project revealed to Yahoo Finance that the release date has been pushed back from the originally planned spring release to the fall of 2017 because of production difficulties as well as issues with the GPS, antennae positioning and device waterproofing.
Considering the fact that the Apple Watch Series is Fitbit’s major competitor, it is essential that Fitbit makes its smart watch fully waterproof before its launch if it is to compete with Apples pool-friendly watch if it is not to appear inferior. Till date, the Fitbit Blaze activity tracker was the closest that the company has ever come to making a smart watch. Although the Blaze has a lot of the typical features found on a smart watch such as notifications and a touchscreen display, it doesn’t allow third party app installation which is critical, nor does it have a built-in GPS. The smart watch, though, is all set to come out packed with features that include a built-in GPS (which they will hopefully get working perfectly before launch), heart-rate monitoring, high-resolution color display, contactless payments, four days of battery life and on-board storage for music.
The interesting part is that Fitbit is planning the release of its first ever Bluetooth headphones simultaneously. For now, all that is known about these headphones is that they come in two colors – Lunar Gray and Nightfall Blue – and are set to be released with the smart watch later this fall. Although there was no word on the reports about the difficulties, the CEO of Fitbit, James Park, has confirmed earlier in the year that a smart watch is in the making. He stated that the wearables market has been growing consistently and is something that should be capitalized upon in Fitbit’s core product offerings. He also confirmed that the company planned to diversify revenue with their entry into the smart watch category that accounts for over $10 billion of the global smartwatch market.
Given the fact that Fitbit has its own unique position to deliver a product that is focused on health and fitness, he believes that they are positioned to succeed in giving consumers what they are looking for. In fact, Fitbit has been buying up smaller smart watch companies through the past year, giving much speculation on how they plan to project their new release this fall. This speculation was even more heightened by the fact that, to quote Park, no other smartwatch combines health and fitness, functionality, general purposes, industrial design and long battery life into one unit. This has given rise to much though on what the new smartwatch will actually turn out to be and what features it will incorporate and whether it will be able to catch up to Apple’s lead.
As far as the headphones go, this isn’t much of a surprise ever since Fitbit announced that they are developing products that go beyond the wrist. With a lot of the company’s competitors being in the activity-tracking market, Fitbit can beat them and have their own niche of followers if they plan their headphones well.
Interestingly, Fitbit’s CEO has also revealed that an app store is in the pipeline as soon as possible. The potential of the app store and how big of a competition it will be with existing app stores is yet to be seen. However, for now, all focus is on the upcoming smartwatch and Bluetooth headset this fall. Their release can make Fitbit either sink beneath their biggest competitors such as Apple, or soar high above expectations.
Author Bio: Varun Kumar Works for LatestOne.com as Content Writer. It is the e-tailer Company known for bringing the Mobile Covers|Wrist Watches|Bluetooth Speakers|Power banks models from all major manufacturers at best discounts. The company has a fully operational office and warehouse maintained to make timely deliveries across the nation
