Dubai: Consumer technology and wearable devices manufacturer Jawbone is very serious about activity trackers rather than smartwatches despite the booming market.
“People tend to talk about the wearables market as if it is one thing. But we see the market as at least three things — smartwatch, sport/workout trackers and activity trackers,” Gwendolyn Smith, Head of International Communications, Jawbone, told Gulf News.
She said smartwatches and workout trackers (such as a traditional chest strap heart rate monitor or GPS running tracker) tend to be larger with detailed displays for notifications or workout progress. Because these displays drain the battery they often need charging overnight. And they are too large to wear to bed — so you will most likely not be tracking sleep.
“The third category — activity trackers — is where we fit in. The key here is 24/7 wearability. If you want to get a comprehensive view of health and wellness you have to track sleep. Even the most stylised and beautiful smart watch is not designed to be worn all day and night,” she said.
So if a person is serious about total health they’ll likely have an “activity tracker”.
“If they are more interested in visual notifications, they’ll likely have a smart watch. And some people will wear both — just as many people already wear a watch and an activity tracker. So, the wearable itself solves different user needs, depending on what the person is most interested in,” she said.
Jawbone will be launching its third generation of wearable devices UP3 and an entry level UP Move by the end of the year.
By pressing the face of UP Move, hidden LED display light up to shows you your progress toward your goals at a glance. Press once to display your step progress, twice to display the time, and three times to display your sleep from the prior night.
It comes in five brilliant colours with corresponding clips to fasten it anywhere easily. It can be placed in the coin pocket of the jeans or with the clip to wear it on the sock or belt. The circular battery can be replaced every six months.
The UP3 has a multi-sensor platform — tri-axis accelerometer, sophisticated bioimpedance sensors, and skin and ambient temperature sensors — that tracks even the heart rate apart from other biometric signals.
Through the UP app, which can be downloaded from Android and Apple stores, users can see their resting heart rate change over time and understand what a healthy heart rate means for them.
The UP Move is priced at Dh219 and UP3 at Dh749.
“UP Move is a brand new entry-level tracker from Jawbone. It’s a great way to get fit and lose weight. It is simple, flexible and comfortable. And it has the high level of refinement and design sensibility you would expect from Jawbone,” she said.
UP Move is the perfect wearable for someone just starting, and the “price point makes it more accessible for a wider range of people” in the market and great for someone just getting started with tracking.
