Dubai: With the fitness business booming across the globe, consumer electronics companies are making forays into this category as they seek to stay ahead of the pack.

Danish company Jabra, the maker of the mono-Bluetooth headset, is taking fitness to the next level with Jabra Sport Pulse, the first set of stereo wireless earbuds with an integrated heart-rate monitor.

Joining LG’s Heart Rate earphones, which seek to do away with chest belts and their accompanying dedicated GPS sports watches, Jabra sees huge growth opportunities across the globe, according to Dina Al Adly, the company’s marketing manager for the Middle East and Africa.

She said that the added heart-rate monitoring makes it an ideal solution for runners and gym-goers who want fewer cables, excellent sound and more useful tracking data. The data is sent directly to Android or an iPhone running Bluetooth 4.0.

“The music industry is getting saturated but voice [Bluetooth headset] is almost controlled by Jabra. We have between 80 and 85 per cent market share in the mono Bluetooth headsets category,” Dina said.

The Sport Pulse is priced at Dh799 and will be available exclusively at Virgin Megastores for two weeks before other retail outlets. It is water-, dust- and shock-proof.

There are other solutions in the market, she said, which are either corded or half-corded.

The Sport Life App helps fitness enthusiasts to plan, track and evaluate the workout by adjusting the heart-rate zone to optimise training and set goals based on distance, time or calories burnt.

She said a voice prompt will let users know when the heart-rate sensor is tracking and tells them when they are overworking or underworking themselves.

Asked how accurate heart-rate monitoring is, Dina said that it is plus or minus 2 per cent when compared to regular ECG (electrocardiography) machines.

Dina added that the results showed extraordinary accuracy

The results of a trial commissioned by Campbell University in North Carolina to independently verify the performance of heart-rate monitoring technology showed an extraordinary accuracy, Dina said.

Julien Arnolda, managing director of Alpha Tech, the main distributors for Jabra products in the Gulf, said that Jabra’s market share had grown around 15 per cent compared to last year in the Gulf.