Fitbit Launches Alta HR, But Is Heart Rate What Consumers Want?

If you spend one third of your life asleep and at least another third of your life at a desk or on your job, how important is it to have your wear-all-day fitness tracker monitoring your heart rate.

Sure it’s an interesting feature in any wearable, but the reality is that Fitbit put considerable effort (reduced chip size 25%) in order to make room for a feature (heart rate monitor) that most people never use as more than a curiosity.

Of those who do use the feature, it’s probably another majority that don’t understand how heart rate impacts their fitness goals.

Down the road, fitness (or wellness) wearables will use AI  to do a better job of tracking cardio vascular well-being by monitoring us in real-time.  These future devices will help predict or prevent health events like heart attack or stroke.  But for now, heart rate monitors, which vary broadly in accuracy, are really a feature of wearable devices because it’s good marketing.

We’re not sold on the value of heart rate monitors in fitness wearables.

The biggest challenge for fitness tracking wearables is that most are now swimming in a sea of ‘sameness’.  Those devices that can differentiate themselves and be adaptable (function v & fashion) are where wearables are heading.

With Fitbit Alta HR, it’s more like the device should have had it in the first place….and two years ago.

Fitbit Alta HR is available for pre-order for US$199.95, with expected shipping in April.