Images of Fitbit’s first-ever “proper” smartwatch and bluetooth headphones have reportedly leaked.
According to Yahoo Finance, the San Francisco-based wearables company is planning to release both devices later this year. The smartwatch, codenamed “Project Higgs,” was said to have been delayed following a series of production issues.
Fitbit reportedly couldn’t get theGPS antennae in the right place, leading to setbacks. The company is also said to have had difficulty making Higgs fully waterproof, a feature that competitors like the Apple Watch Series 2 include.
“It was originally planned for this spring to likely get ahead of whenever Apple plans their normal fall announcement,” a source familiar with the projects told Yahoo Finance. “Fitbit always likes to try and get in front of it.”
Fitbit released the Blaze smartwatch last year, which was primarily fitness-focused in its functionality. Higgs is said to be a more competitive device with a slew of added features, including a colour display similar to the Apple Watch Series 2, a built-in GPS unit, music storage and playback options, the ability to make touchless payments and four days of battery life between charges.
It’s important to note that this music functionality is said to call upon internet radio service Pandora, which is not currently offered in Canada. Yahoo‘s story doesn’t mention any alternative option for Canada or other countries outside of the U.S., Australia and New Zealand in which it is available. Yahoo says that Pandora wasn’t Fitbit’s first choice, either, with a potential partnership with Spotify ultimately being ruled out earlier in development.
Finally, Higgs is described as having an aluminum unibody design which would let users swap out watch bands. The smartwatch is expected to cost around $300 USD, which would it roughly $410 in Canada.
Meanwhile, the Bluetooth headphones, codenamed “Parkside” internally, are said to hang around the user’s neck, similar to the Beats X earbuds. Yahoo says they’ll come in “Nightfall Blue” and “Lunar Gray” colour options and sell for around $150 USD (around $205 CAD).
Source: Yahoo
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