Unable to beat them with its orignal approach, Polar has joined the other mainstream firms focusing on wearable tech in offering a fitness tracker that has an embedded heart rate monitor. And the Polar A360 was born of that.
Previously, Polar Electro's fitness tracker had all become fragmented when compared to the likes of Fitbit and Pebble. The wearable tech company previously only offered heart-monitoring hardware in the form of a strap.
Besides requiring multiple pieces of hardware to monitor heartbeats, the products necessary to do so were more costly than those offered by the startup that started to encroach on its territory.
So the A360 is a departure from Polar's past way of doing thing, despite the old way being extremely accurate. In the transition from chest band-based heart monitors to those that rest on wrist, Polar's Suvilaakso, Global Product Director, asserts that the accuracy the company has become known for, over the last 38 years, is still there.
"The key to achieving Polar's well-known accuracy relies on how data is recorded by the sensor, and then how it is interpreted," says Suvilaakso. "We developed our own algorithm for optical heart rate monitoring and optimized the hardware design to ensure the A360 meets the same accuracy and quality standards that Polar customers have come to expect."
Though the A360 can monitor heart rate from its wrist-watch form factor, users can stilll pair the fitness tracker with Polar's H7 chest-strap sensor for even more accurate biometrics.
The $200 A360 also tracks steps, miscellaneous movement, calories burned, workout times and sleep. The fitness tracker has a full-color, high-resolution display. And despite having a color display, the A360 can track fitness activity for up to two weeks before needing to spend any time at an electrical outlet.
The A360 will go on sale next month. The fitness tracker will be offered in three sizes -- small, medium and large -- and will be available in colors of charcoal black, navy blue, neon green, powder white and sorbet pink.
