Fitbit has long been rumoured to introduce its own smartwatch to take on the likes of Apple Watch, Samsung's Gear S3 and Android Wear devices. While the wearable was slated to release in the first quarter of 2017, it is now said to arrive at the end of this year. The industry leader in fitness wearables segment acquired Pebble and Vector some time back.
Yahoo Finance has obtained images of Fitbit's first smartwatch and Bluetooth earbuds that will be launched alongside its wearables. Fitbit's smartwatch is rumoured to be codenamed Higgs, and is said to sport a design similar to company's Blaze fitness watch. The wearable is said to feature a colour display with 1,000 nits of brightness, similar to that of Apple Watch Series 2 and could be priced around $300. The smartwatch expected to feature an unibody aluminium design and is tipped to offer a battery life of four days.
Fitbit's smartwatch ambitions have been apparent from company's recent acquisitions and are said to have been delayed due to a number of design and software issues. The early prototypes of the wearables reportedly had issues with its GPS antenna and the company is said to be struggling to make it waterproof.
The company acquired Pebble's assets primarily to strengthen its software division and develop its own app store. However, the app store is not likely to arrive at the time of the launch and the smartwatch will instead offer some customised apps. Fitbit's smartwatch will reportedly support contactless payment function and stream music from Pandora. The Yahoo Finance report adds Pandora was not the first choice of music streaming service provider, and Fitbit ruled out a partnership with Spotify even before development.
Fitbit is also releasing a pair of Bluetooth earbuds codenamed Parkside with a neckband style design. The Bluetooth earbud is said to be priced around $150 and arrive in Nightfall Blue and Lunar Grey colour options. It is believed that Fitbit's smartwatch announcement will fuel the segment, which has been facing abandonment from consumers.