At Mobile World Congress earlier this year, HTC announced the Grip fitness tracker. The band was then bumped to a launch ‘later this year’ in July with the intent seemingly to bring their band to market close to the ‘Holiday’ season. Now that date has slipped further, with HTC advising they will now be launching a range of fitness trackers next year.
The team over at Phandroid broke the news, approaching HTC about the availability of the tracker, with HTC providing a statement that outlines their plans. HTC said:
As we continue to develop the Connected Fitness platform and elevate our product offerings, Under Armour and HTC have decided to launch a fully integrated digital ecosystem of products early next year. This global launch will provide the tools needed to help athletes of all levels track, manage and improve their health and fitness. Our teams have done a remarkable job bringing these products to life and we’re excited to share them with the public soon.
As well as hinting at more than just the one device, the statement also talks about a global launch, which improves on the original US-only launch that HTC was planning for the Grip. The HTC Grip while limited in some areas, was a very well designed band, comfortable to wear and had many great design innovations including spacers for getting the perfect fit on your wrist.
The ‘Connected Fitness’ platform seems to be referring to the Under Armour software that will run the software. The Under Armour software tracks a lot of fitness data including the usual step and heart rate, as well as sleep tracking.
With the expansion of Under Armour in Australia and a new range of fitness products from HTC on the horizon, we’re quite looking forward to seeing what HTC can do in this area – and maybe, just maybe, one of those devices might be the long awaited HTC Android Wear unit; we’ll have to wait and see.
