With more than 450 employees, Jawbone — the design-focused fitness tracker company — is not the largest, but it clearly isn’t a shrinking violet either.
The company launched two new products today, including a refreshed UP2 wristband (super thin, small, fitness focused, and designed to blend in to your body) and the UP3 (a more technical big brother to the UP2).
No ad to show here.
Available today in ten new designs and colour options, neither variety will get you laughed at the gym thanks to the 13-year, strong relationship with top design icon Yves Behar.
Both designs indeed do blend in to other jewellery or wrist decorations you may be wearing, and are designed to blend in with most fashions. Still not quite smartwatches, the pieces are focused on the wearer, their health and now even more about sleep. While neither are fully ready for a scuba dive yet, both will handle a daily shower without a hitch.
Featuring a newly designed strap (a drastic improvement over previous versions), a new tri-axis accelerometer, the Jawbone UP3 is packed with tech that you need to know nothing about to benefit from.
Sleep, passive heart rate monitoring and automation are the key changes. Sleep and workouts are automatically identified through complex algorithms so the user simply goes about the day and has information fed back to them at the right time. The forethought that the new bio-impedence sensors (and other sensors) give UP3 measures is refreshing to see as this move means Jawbone has the potential to measure a much wider range of variables, combine data and then feed it back to users in order to live healthier, more active lives.
In essence, Jawbone has built UP3 for today and tomorrow — a nice touch considering the mountains of tech waste every year and a testament to the units’ tough design (which was previously an issue for some).
Smart Coach — Jawbone’s proprietary software platform — (available on iOS and Android) has also been subtly upgraded and continues to lead the field in UI, behavioural science integrations based on what was seen and demonstrated today.
Suffering from a punishing speaking tour, Bandar Antabi (VP for Jawbone responsible for Special Projects), discussed the new features, Jawbone’s ethos and the future of Jawbone:
The sensor platform we launched today is an updatedable sensor platforms so we can push updates onto your band so it can get new features we’re excited to be launching in the coming months and years. Our API is open and we’re excited to see what people build around it. The unlocking of the future feature set means the sky is the limit with what we can bring it — for example, I’m excited to get to a point where we work to help users make smarter TV choices that will help them sleep better versus ones that may disrupt their sleep.
Antabi continued discussing how Jawbone approaches designing products that are meant to be truly worn:
We see it as a lifestyle tracker that is truly ’24/7wear’. We design around comfort and with two thoughts in mind, firstly it disappears around you and secondly, comfort, it’s got to go with you wherever you go and whatever you do so how it feels and makes you feel is key to its success.
Both UP2 and UP3 last around seven days on a full charge and are available in select stores and online outlets today. The UP2 retails for £90 and UP3 £130 in the UK. There are unfortunately no information on South African price or availability yet.
