October 1, the US manufacturer of fitness trackers Fitbit gave the official launch of sales of its first smart watch Ionic. The novelty was applied to the development of Coin, Pebble and Vector Watch - companies that in the last year and a half purchased Fitbit, having spent tens of millions of dollars on it.
Fitbit Ionic watches, which cost $ 300, are equipped with a 1.42-inch display with a resolution of 348 x 250 pixels and a brightness of 1000 nits, 2.5 GB of internal memory and wireless modules Wi-Fi 802. 11 b / g / n, Bluetooth 4. 0 and NFC. The latter is used for the payment service Fitbit Pay Pay.
Also in the device have found application GPS-receiver, heart rate sensor PurePulse and sensor for measuring the level of saturation of blood with oxygen (saturation). The gadget supports third-party applications and can withstand immersion in water to a depth of 50 meters, the producer promises.
Analysts say that the future of Fitbit depends on the success of Ionic. The demand for fitness trackers in the world is falling with growing demands from consumers who want wearable gadgets to not only track physical activity but perform the functions inherent in smartphones such as the ability to check e-mail, listen to music and.
The position of Fitbit in the world market of portable electronics has significantly weakened lately. According to IDC, in the second quarter of 2017, Fitbit's fitness tracker shipments fell 40%, from 5.7 to 3.4 million units, taking into account that the vendor's market share fell from 24% to 13%.
Meanwhile, the Softpedia News magazine reports that many people who ordered Fitbit Ionic before the devices arrived in stores have already managed to get devices and complain about various problems with the novelty in Internet forums. Among the common complaints - difficulties in synchronizing watches with smartphones. Also, some do not work with the new music player function and there are difficulties with pairing with mobile devices running the new version of iOS 11. There are also problems with some models of Android-smartphones: observers recommend that before buying Ionic make sure that the device is listed in the list of supported models.
In fairness, journalists added that in the case of complex electronics such complaints are common, and that even eminent brands - Samsung, Apple and Amazon - have faced similar situations after the release of new products.
How will affect the output of Ionic in the affairs of Fitbit, it is not yet clear - the company does not give forecasts regarding the sales volumes of its first smart hours. Analyst IDC Ramon Llamas believes that Ionic is just the beginning, and that Fitbit will continue to work on "smart" watches.