$16 for a fitness tracker and a heart monitor. Sound like a good deal, doesn’t it?
Fitbit charges its consumers more $20 for a Charge wearable with heart rate sensing which is called the Charge HR. The Charge wristband costs $129.95 while Charge HR costs $149.95.
Fitbit’s biggest competitors in fitness wearables market – Xiaomi also adds a heart rate monitor to its Mi Band fitness tracker which it calls the new Mi Band Pulse. The additional feature costs consumers 3 more dollars making the price of Mi Band Pulse at $16. The Mi Band was sold for $13 since the official launch last year.
The Chinese giant smartphone maker first introduced the Mi Band Pulse in July 2015. Back to that time, Mi Band Pulse looked just like its predecessor with a larger pill-shaped device attached to the wristband. Now we know that the new generation of Xiaomi’s fitness tracker bracelet will be made from a tougher material so that it will not be broken so easily.
But more important, the larger pill-shaped device means that the tracker can now track your heart rate by sensing your body’s blood flow. The wearable uses light-based PPG sensor to measure blood flow. PPG (photoplethysmogram) technology uses pulse oximeter to “illuminate the skin and measure change in light absorption” of skin. The change in light absorption creates a waveform that gives the figures of a body heart rate.
Mi Band Pulse uses 45 mAh battery that will last about 20 days in a single charge, 10 days less than the Mi Band bracelet. One thing that remains the same from the Mi Band is the water and dust resistance feature. Last time we know, it took Mi Band a little bit of time to add iOS support, now Mi Band Pulse will work with both Android (4.4 or later) and iOS (iOS 7 of later) devices from the very beginning.
The low price of Xiaomi’s wearables has been the company’s advantages over other competitors. In the second quarter of this year, the Taiwan-based company shipped about 3.1 million units of its wearable products, which claimed it the third place in the wearable market behind Apple (3.6 million) and Fitbit (4.4 million) but ahead Garmin with 0.7 million products shipped and Samsung with 0.6 million shipped. However, in the fitness wearable devices, Xiaomi is expected to become a strong competitor of Fitbit or even win the market since its products have the very competitive price.
Mi Band Pulse will be available for sales on China’s Singles day on November 11. This event is similar to the Black Friday but a lot bigger in size (because of China’s population). The new wearable will be sold initially in China only. But on a post in Facebook, Xiaomi suggests that they may sell Mi Band Pulse in some other countries by asking “Would you like to see this launched in your country too?”. Otherwise, consumers can still purchase some from Xiaomi’s global store.