Everybody is getting into the smartwatch craze…even the companies that up until now were only selling fitness bracelets, like Fitbit. Fitbit, founded in San Francisco in 2007 and managed by James Park and Eric Friedman, has been in the forefront of products bearing the Fitbit name – mostly activity trackers, and other wireless-enabled products that measured the distance that you would walk or run. The first of their products was simply called, Fitbit Tracker, that used an OLED display and a three-dimensional accelerometer to sense movement…much like that used in the Wii Remote. It could calculate distance walked, calories burned, floors climbed, activity duration and intensity. It could also track your sleep patterns based on your restlessness as you tried to sleep.
There were subsequent improvements and enhancements in the Fitbit Ultra, Fitbit One, Fitbit Flex, Fitbit Force – which had issues with skin irritation and was replaced with the Fitbit Charge – and Fitbit Charge HR, which also included a heart rate monitor. Their latest device, the Fitbit Surge is more like a smartwatch than an activity tracker with its built-in GPS and automatic and continuous heart rate monitoring. The Fitbit Surge, while looking like a ‘designer label watch,’ will give you real-time stats of your movement, calories burned, heart intensity and will track you all day long to help you monitor your health over a period of time.
The Fitbit Surge is running $250 in the U.S., but its arrival in Canada is adding an extra $30 to the cost, bringing it in just under $280. Future Shops is now taking pre-orders with an estimated delivery date of January 23…with ‘Limited Quantity Available.’ The Fitbit Surge will synchronize with popular partner apps, such as MyFitnessPal. The Fitbit stats can be synced to either your computer or over 60 leading smartphones – and will even receive on its display, text and call notifications if your smartphone is nearby. It has a seven day battery life and is compatible with Android, iOS or Windows Phone devices.
Please hook up with us on our Google+ Page and let us know if the new $280 Fitbit surge is a product that you would enjoy or for that amount of money are you leaning more toward the Sony SmartWatch 3, the Moto 360, the LG G Watch R or one of Samsung’s offerings…as always, we would love to hear from you.