Wearables Thrive as Fitbit by Google Announces Sense 2 and Versa 4 Smartwatches

Source: Fitbit.com

Fitbit has officially unveiled its new line of smartwatches and fitness trackers. The new smartwatches are Fitbit Sense 2 and Fitbit Versa 4, while the new fitness tracker is Fitbit Inspire 3. The new models all sport design improvements such as lighter, thinner bodies and high-end sensors.

The Sense 2, in particular, uses vaporized electrodes for its health sensors. This engineering advancement allows for a thinner surface and sleek design. The Sense and Versa now have physical buttons on the side and slightly higher band attachments. Fitbit estimates battery life for both models to be at six days without the “always-on display” mode (AOD). Sense 2 comes with a tag price of $299.95 while Versa 4 is priced at $229.95.

Meanwhile, Inspire 3 has a new color OLED display and a SpO2 sensor. SpO2 is for tracking blood oxygen distributed in the body. This feature helps users understand potential changes in their well-being. The OLED display sucks up more power but Fitbit still estimates battery life for Inspire 3 to be at 10 days. Inspire 3 is priced at $99.95.

Sense and Versa also have software updates packaged in exercise modes. Users can choose modes like HIIT, dance, or weightlifting. Sense also has heart rhythm monitoring for atrial fibrillation. Other software additions soon to arrive include Google Maps and Google Wallet.

Fitbit by Google

But probably the most interesting change is not in the product themselves but in the branding of Fitbit. We now see “by Google” on the Fitbit website—an indicator that the company’s new owner wants to make its presence known. So far the branding change is only on the website and doesn’t appear yet on the company’s app and social media accounts.

Google completed its acquisition of Fitbit in 2021 and is now working on the integration of its own Pixel Watch with Versa and Sense. The more-than-$2 billion merger was initially controversial for regulatory authorities because of the volume of health data Fitbit stores for its users. Fitbit users were also worried if they could still use their devices with third-party services.

Ensuring High Performing Apps for Wearables

Wearables have gone from the early adopter stage to mainstream usage. Crucial to this adoption is software. How well an app runs in a wearable device has a direct impact on the technology. Apps that frequently experience downtimes would not be reliable in processing the huge volume of data wearables need to handle; thus they negatively impact customer experience.

Vendors providing apps for wearables need to ensure their software runs as expected to provide the best digital experience for customers. But in today’s modern tech stack, there can be too many factors to monitor such as security vulnerabilities, native cloud services, and third-party services. Any number of issues could be to blame for poor app performance.

One way to address this is by implementing application performance monitoring (APM). APMs enable full-stack observability, which makes it easy for technologists to manage and optimize the performance and availability of their software in a complex IT environment.

Moreover, full-stack observability is vital for fixing anomalies in real time. APMs leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate anomaly detection. This means vendors and their developers can significantly reduce MTTR and get to root cause diagnostics.