Details about the Fitbit Charge fitness tracker have been oozing out over the last couple of weeks. CNet briefly got its hands on one, along with word that the Charge HR (with heart monitor) and the Surge running watch won’t come out until next year.
The Charge is more or less a replacement for the ill-fated Force, which suffered from a hard-to-secure clasp that caused enough people to break out in rashes that the device had to be recalled. (We didn’t get a rash, but the clasp on ours popped open repeatedly and was eventually lost.) The Charge is a little wider than the Force and apparently has a better clasp, and will display Caller ID when paired with an iOS or Android device. It will cost $130, which is on the high side.
The Charge HR is like the Charge but with a heart rate monitor. It’ll cost $150 when it ships early next year.
The Surge is a fairly massive fitness smartwatch that competes with the Basis Peak or several models from Polar. It’ll cost $250 when it comes out, also early next year.
Fitbit is, by most measures, the leader in the fitness band business. But the Charge is pretty much an even-up replacement for the Force, and it took the company a full year to bring it out. The Surge pricing is on the high side in a market that’s becoming commoditized. If Fitbit had missed another holiday season without a new band, it would have signaled that it’s software and ecosystem that matters, not hardware. That may, in fact, be true — but Fitbit currently monetizes the hardware, not the software, which means if your hardware sales tank, you’ve got a serious business problem.
Glad to hear Fitbit is the leader in this category. LOVE my Flex and it has positively affected my food/drink choices and behavior to slim down and be more active. I’m hoping they’ll update Fitbit Flex with a heart rate monitor, and give current Flex owners a trade-in/trade-up option. The slim profile of Flex is a bonus, and I already wear a watch so the Charge isn’t a consideration.
Right on Dan – the pricing of these is strange – the optical monitor on the HR is on the wrong side of the unit (wrong for best readings, on the top of the wrist, not wrong like pointing away from the user).
Also failure to broadcast Heart Rate in BLE or Ant+ is a mistake as these would be great units to replace hrm straps…
Thanks, Josh. I don’t understand why ANT+ isn’t bigger in this market. I talked to a marketing director for them at Mobile World Congress, and he seemed pretty peeved about that state of affairs. I wonder if the fact that Garmin owns ANT+ is the problem; other vendors see it as proprietary and would rather roll their own.