Jawbone’s UP3 fitness tracker was supposed to ship before the end of 2014. It didn’t make it, and its web site had been citing delivery intervals of “6-7 weeks” since then. The company has now announced that initial shipment of back orders will start April 20, with the expectation that all pre-orders will be fulfilled by mid-May. No word about wider retail distribution.
The hang-up, the company said, was an over-ambitious goal for waterproof-ness. A blog post signed by Travis Bogard, Jawbone’s vice president of product management and strategy, said the $180 UP3 was designed to be worn while swimming and could be submerged to 10 meters; most trackers can stand getting a little wet but aren’t fit for swimming. But building stuff is hard, and the UP3 was ultimately not able to live up to its standard for watertightness.
So the product is late, and it won’t perform quite as promised. But at least it will ship.
