The Next Generation
of Activity, Health Trackers, and Smartwatches.
By Hector Cisneros
 |
| Apple Watch Courtesy of Flickr |
Health Trackers
and Smart Watches are everywhere. You can walk into a room without noticing these
items inhabiting the arms of thousands of people across the fruited plain. It has been about five years since these items
were introduced to the public and the fad
has turned into a trend that still seems unstoppable. In fact, it appears these
devices are replacing regular watches as the de facto timepiece. This trend will grow as long as computing power grows, size
shrinks, devices improve, and the prices drop. It seems that there is no end in
sight to the number of people adopting activity trackers and smartwatches. This
is especially true for health conscious and athletic individuals. In this episode
of Working the Web to Win, we will delve into the latest and greatest activity/health
trackers and smartwatches. There is considerable
overlap between many of these devices, and
this article will endeavor to help you understand the differences. So, roll up your
sleeves Dick Tracy and take a gander at your wrists as we take a close look at the
latest and greatest Smart Watches and Activity Trackers.
My goal in this article is to give the reader the ability to sift through all the hype so they can select a wearable that fits their needs and taste. Later in this article, I will provide a checklist of the most common features available on many of these devices. It is up to you to pick a watch that best fits your specific needs.
Smart watches, activity, and health trackers are not new. In fact,
we first wrote about them back in 2013 with our article called New Year, New Internet Rules, where we discussed new exciting trends at
that time. Since then we have written about wearables in several more articles,
including Wearables 2.0 - The Rise of the Trackers, In that Article I explained many of the ins and outs of selecting
the right tracker for your needs and how to maximize its usefulness as well. It's
one of our most read articles ever. Here are a few more wearables articles worth
reading.
 |
| Courtesy of smartwatchnews.org |
- The Basics of Biohacking
- The Doc in the eBox
- The Newest Tech and Tech Trends for the New Year
- How to Lose Weight and Keep it Off in the 21st Century
- Star Trek Tech and Beyond in the 21st Century
- Where Has Google Glass Gone?
- Ready to Ware
I have made many
predictions about wearable devices, especially activity trackers and smartwatches. Most of the predictions of greater
performance and features have come true. But battery life still has not improved
much in 2 ½ years. I believe this is due to adding more features (like GPS and Heart
Rate monitoring) to many of the mid-range
units. Greater battery drain comes with greater
performance and more features being tracked,
so most of the top sellers by Garmin, Fitbit, Samsung, Apple and Polar range from
about 2 to 7 days between charges.
 |
| Fitbit Ionic Courtesy of Wikipedia |
 |
| Vivoactive 1 Courtesy of Flickr |
Speaking of how to select your activity
tracker - I am sure you
will be reading reviews and test articles to see what the experts have to say. I
have provided a bunch of them on our
notes page associated with this article. I want you
all to read these articles with a grain of salt. Articles fall into two categories,
reviews, and test. Review articles are often skewed toward the model or the brand the
author likes best. Test articles, on the other hand,
start by discussing the criteria used to rate devices. They also provide categories
like price range, and whether they were geared
toward health tracking, general athletic use, specific sports or more general computing
like a smartwatch. If criteria are not set up or mentioned, the article could be an advertisement
disguised as a review. Many of the videos on YouTube touting the “best and top models”
are just advertisements optimized for YouTube search with those key phrases. I also
recommend paying attention to the reviews on vendor sites like Target and BestBuy.
Look for products with hundreds, if not thousands of reviews and that have a rating
of 4 or higher.
 |
| Vivoactive 3 Courtesy of Garmin.com |
What to Buy? - Three years ago, there were many categories
and clear classes of wearable products. The truth is that the function of these
devices is blurred. When a device can provide the time, track a dozen activities,
monitor health functions, download and use apps
and also connect online, it’s both
an activity/health tracker and a smartwatch.
In my opinion, the top brands from Apple,
Garmin, Fitbit, Samsung,
and Polar are smartwatches
that double as high-end activity and health trackers. The rest is just semantics. As a general rule,
you can’t go wrong with a top brands. The links above will take you to these top
brand websites. But remember, decide what you must have first. That’s why I say
you should choose a wearable device by selecting
your “must have” features first. Then, if the device
you end up with has more features, it's icing on the cake. Having said that,
if you're looking for a good all-around device,
look at the Fitbit Charge 2 and its Garmin competitor the Vivosport. If you want a great multi-sport smartwatch
in the $250 to $300 range, look at the Fitbit
Blaze or Ionic or the Garmin
Vivoactive 3.
For a top end smart Watch, it’s hard to beat the Apple Watch 3.
And just so you know, I am not getting paid for any of my endorsement of these products.
I just like them.
 |
| Fitbit Charge 2 HR Courtesy of Fitbit |
The Future is bright - It doesn’t take a crystal ball to guess
what direction wearables are going. It’s headed in the “Star Trek Tech direction.
The next generation of these devices will be adding artificial intelligence as a
standard feature. Many of the Android smartwatches
and the new Apple watch will allow you to give voice commands to your smartphone
via the watches microphone. Some will let you make and take calls, play music, access
your calendar, answer text and more. Yeah,
AI is where this tech is headed, and it will
be a cool technology once it’s protected.
 |
| Samsung Gear S3 Courtesy of Samsung |
A word of caution about where to buy your
wearables - Make sure the
vendor you buy from can warranty the device directly and that they are authorized
to sell the device by the
manufacturer. If they are not, the manufacturer will not
honor the warranty if you have a problem. The manufacturers often list who is authorized
to sell their product on their website. It
doesn’t matter if you're buying it from Amazon, eBay, Jet, or Walmart. These vendors offer
many third-party products, and all vendors are not authorized resellers. Target, Best
Buy, Dicks, and Academy Sports, for the most part, don’t advertise l third-party
sales on their websites. If you must buy from a third party or even used on eBay,
make sure the vendor has a high rating (98 or 4 stars and above) and that they clearly state the warranty, return policy and time
frame in their product listing.
 |
| Courtesy of Pixabay |
Earlier I stated
that I felt it was important to choose your wearable based on your “must have” features first and foremost. In order to
know what features you must have and would also like to get, you’re going to need
to do some reading. I highly recommend doing your due diligence by reading many
of the articles linked here and on the notes page. Here is a list of the prominent
features that most people care about:
Price Range
____ $20 to $49
____ $50 to $100
 |
| Polar 600 Courtesy of Polar |
____ $201 to $349
____ $350 to $549
____ $550 and up
General Features
____ Battery
life (longer is better)
____ Readability in all
lighting
____ Size (personal
preference)
____ Shape (personal
preference)
____ Color (personal
preference - some are changeable)
____ Exchangeable bands
____ Charging method and
plug
____ Time and Date
____ Additional Watch Faces
____ Additional Device
Wedges & App
____ Accessory Support
(associated smart scale or sport specific devices)
____ A method to express
progress towards your goal
____
IPX rating (water &
dust proofing)
Activity Tracker Features
____ Time & Date
 |
| Fitbit blaze Courtesy of Fitbit |
____ Steps
____ Distance
____ Floor Climbed
____ Work out Intensity
____ Goals
____ Smartphone App
Health, Fitness Features
____ All day Heart Rate
Monitor
____ Sleep Tracking
____ Weight
____ Calories In/Out
____ All Day Stress
____ Respiration Rate
____ Blood Pressure
____ Temperature
____ Blood Oxygen
Sports
Tracker Features
 |
| Vivoactive 3 Courtesy of Garmin |
____ Golf + courses
____ Swimming
____ Running- Both indoors
and out
____ Weight Lifting
____ Climb
____ Bike- Both indoors
and out
____ Ski/board
____ Boxing
____ Interval Training
____ Walking - Both
indoors and out
____ Hike
____ Rowing - Both indoors
and out
____ Other
SmartWatch
Features
____ Access to Smartphone
to make and receive calls
____ Make and receive calls
from the watch
____ Access to Smartphone
to send and receive Text
____ Create, send and
receive text from watch
____ Access Email on
Smartphone
____ Create email on Watch
____ Access to Calendar
Functions
____ Create entries and
update the calendar from the watch
 |
| Apple Watch 3 Courtesy of Apple |
____ Access contact list
on a smartphone
____ Create and edit
contacts from the watch
____ Access to GPS Map
navigation from a smartphone
____ Built-in GPS
navigation
____ Control Music Smartphone
apps
____ Store and control Music
and MP3 files to watch
____ Play videos from Smartphone
to watch
____ Record and play
videos on watch
____ Take Pictures with Smartphone
____ Take picture with Smartwatch
____ Take picture with Smartwatch
____ Downloadable Device Specific
Apps & Widgets
____ Activity Tracker
Features
____ Sport Tracker
Features
____ Health Tracker
Features
Smartphone App
____ Smartphone App Friendliness
____ Full Featured
Smartphone App
____ Ability to function
with third-party apps
____ Product Community
____ Vendor upgrades
____ Vendor online Support
If you’re a beginner, make sure you get the basics covered regarding
whichever product you purchase. For example;
all day activity tracking, steps, distance, and calories burned. I would also add
sleep and heart rate monitoring along with a move indicator as being tops on my
list. If you’re into various sports, make sure your
top three or four sports are covered by your device. I personally like Garmin devices because Garmin makes
smartwatches that cover the most sports. I
would also tell you that Apple, Fitbit, Samsung, and Polar all make great smart/activity/health
tracker watches. If you’re an Apple person, you won’t be disappointed with the Apple
Watch 2 or 3.
If the look and feel are important, make sure you try a few on first
to check if it meets your
standards. If you are price conscious, you can always
go with a used device or look into any of
the hundreds of low cost imported devices on the market. I know that eBay, Amazon, and Walmart are flooded with these products. Gear Best is another company that carries a lot of
these import wearable devices. Last time I checked, Gear Best carried over 240 smartwatch/activity trackers including some brand
names like Garmin. Their inventory covers a wide array of prices and features with
the bulk of the devices coming in at low to medium cost range. A real cheap alternative
is just to use your Smartphone to track your
activity. In fact, 2016 saw a slowdown in the adoption of activity trackers due to the widespread availability of smartphone
apps like Google Fit and many others. Search
the Google Play store, and you will see what
I mean.
 |
| Courtesy of GearBest.com |
If you're shopping
for a new activity tracker, know that this will not be your last. Look for the best
deal you can find. Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Amazon Cyber sales in July are
great times to buy. You can also setup a sale alert on some of the retail websites
to let you know when to buy. Also look for closeouts and used devices. Often a person
will buy a smartwatch or activity tracker
and doesn’t like the look or feel. Sometimes they realize they hate wearing a watch-type
device. Sometimes they were given the device as a present and didn't need it! Their loss is your gain.
Now, if you're buying
one of these devices in the hopes of losing weight, think again. These devices provide
feedback only! They don’t do the exercises for you;
they can only monitor your vitals, efforts,
and results. Also, even if you exercise more and ignore eating right, you will fail.
Eating right is more important than doing
lots of exercises.
It is my sincerest
hope that this article and the other articles listed help you on your journey to
a better understanding of your health. I hope it helps you select the best wearable
device for your budget and needs. I recommend reading my prior article called “Wearables 2.0 - The Rise The of Trackers”, it provides a wealth of useful information
when making a buying decision. Thanks for reading my article.
 |
| Get your FREE copy today. |
That’s my opinion; I look forward to reading
yours.
This article provides
the reader with a means to better understand the differences between health trackers,
activity trackers, and smartwatches. It includes an
updated look at what’s available, makes purchase recommendations and also includes a checklist
of the most common features. This aids the reader by providing a must-have feature list to help make the buying decision
easier. Also included are links to many other related articles and resources.
If you feel your business could use some help with its marketing,
give us a call at 904-410-2091, we are here to help. You can also fill out the form in
the sidebar of this blog. It will allow us to
provide you with a free marketing analysis to help you get better online
results. Our claim to fame is that we are one of the few companies who actually provide ironclad written guarantees.
Very Nice article, Keep it up
ReplyDelete