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Wearables vendor Fitbit has long been recognised as a go-to brand for fitness trackers of all shapes and sizes, but while it dipped its toe into the smartwatch market with last year’s Blaze, the company hasn’t fully dived in to create its attempt at an Apple Watch killer. That was supposed to change this Spring, with the company set to launch its first proper smartwatch. However, a new report from Yahoo Finance says that we might have to wait a bit longer because of production issues.
The main issues – according to the report – surround the watch’s GPS components and waterproofing which have forced the delay. This means that the originally touted Spring release has been pushed all the way back to the Autumn, say Yahoo’s sources.
The watch itself is said to resemble the aforementioned Blaze which saw mixed responses due to its angular design and materials that felt cheap in comparision to the Apple Watches of the world. It is also expected to have a full colour display, GPS, a heart rate monitor, onboard storage to play music from Pandora (presumably there will be some sort of international equiavelent as Pandora is only available in the US) and four-day battery life. All of that will be stuck in a device that apparently will sit at around $300.
It will be interesting to see how the device operates given the company’s recent acquisition of Pebble that saw Fitbit absorb the Kickstarted brand’s key software personnel, with a view to improve its own operating system. Whether this new product comes too soon to see any of the former Pebble team’s ideas integrated remains to be seen, but this is certainly not the last we’ll hear about Fitbit and the smartwatch market.
