FITBIT, Inc. has launched its latest fitness tracker Fitbit Charge 3 — part of its advanced product line — in the Philippines.
The fitness tracker is equipped with a new premium design, improved health and fitness sensors, and smartphone features.
An upgrade to the wearable technology firm’s Charge line, the Fitbit Charge 3 is made from aluminum versus its predecessor’s stainless steel material. Its higher resolution display is a grayscale OLED touchscreen. The tracker also has a battery life of up to seven days, which a charge time of about two hours. It saves seven days of detailed motion data, daily totals for the last 30 days, and heart rate data at one-second and five-second intervals.
The Fitbit Charge 3 is also water resistant for up to 50 meters.
Other features include a PurePulse heart rate tracker, female health tracker, sleep tracker, and more than fifteen modes of goal-based exercises.
The device syncs automatically and wirelessly via Bluetooth to computers and iOS, Android, and Windows devices. It also has expanded smartphone features such as mobile app notifications and quick replies on Android.
The Fitbit Charge 3 comes in two core designs: black with aluminum case and blue gray with a rose gold aluminum case. The special edition case designs come in a lavender woven with rose gold aluminum and a white frost sport band with graphite aluminum. Its price starts at P9,990.
In 2007, developments in sensor and wireless technology led Fitbit founders James Park and Eric Friedman to set their mission “to empower and inspire you to live a healthier, more active life.” At present, Fitbit products are sold in over 39,000 retail stores in 86 countries.
“The idea is to help people to give them information so that they can take action to change their behavior. For example, today, I want to start on a journey to lose weight or sleep well. How can I do that? There’s no other way unless I wear something or to give me the information,” WT Soh, Fitbit senior sales training manager for Southeast Asia, told BusinessWorld at the launch on Nov. 15 in Shangri-la at the Fort.
“The idea is to make the change in behavior. Hopefully helping them to stay healthy,” Mr. Soh said.
According to data presented at the launch by Louis Lye, Fitbit regional director for Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, the Fitbit platform has recorded an engagement value of 5.4 million users who “are very active synchronizing data, and looking at a dashboard, not just how many steps they walk, how many calories the birth use way, but also the quality of their speed.”
Mr. Lye added that 56% of users share their achievements on the Fitbit’s community app.
As of October, Mr. Lye said, Fitbit has already collected 9 trillion minutes of heart-rate data, 157 trillion steps, 7.5 billion nights of sleep and 417 billion minutes of exercise from its 25.4 million active users.
“We are talking about insights which Fitbit continues to leverage on and use to provide useful insights targeted back to the users,” Mr. Lye said. — M.A.P. Soliman

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