Fitbit Launches Two New Fitness Trackers
Fitbit officially launched the sale of two new fitness and activity trackers, Charge HR and Surge, on Tuesday. Both wrist trackers feature caller ID and sleep monitoring as well as visible stats and a watch on its display. The company originally announced its new devices in October, but now they're available for purchase, Fitbit said at the Consumer Electronics Show CES. "With Fitbit Charge HR and Fitbit Surge, features like heart rate tracking are made simpler by being continuous and automatic so the technology works no matter what you're doing," said James Park, CEO and cofounder of Fitbit, in a statement. Fitbit Charge HR costs 149.95 and uses continuous heart rate readings to provide wearers with day-long stats on their fitness. The Surge is 249.95 and takes tracking a step further with GPS, text message notifications and music control. The fitness tracker market is crowded, and it's estimated that 42 million wearable fitness and health devices shipped in 2014. That puts a lot of pressure on companies to come up with the latest and greatest technology to cram into a durable vehicle the size of a large bracelet. Early products were equivalent to glorified pedometers which, by the way, you can buy for under 10. Now, they're much fancierthough not necessarily much more accurate. A 2014 study from Iowa State University looked at the most popular trackers and found that they were an average of 10-15 off at calculating calorie burn from activity. The Fitbit series, however, was fairly close in accuracy to the kind scientists use in research. The new Fitbit trackers can now be shipped everywhere in the U.S. and globally in the near future.