Sports clothing maker New Balance has announced that it’s working on a smartwatch powered by Android Wear.
Steve Jobs’ chosen trainer brand has used CES 2016 to announce the formation of a new “Digital Sport” division aimed at getting it into the lucrative fitness wearables market.
The new division will provide “a comprehensive, athlete-focused digital ecosystem” powered by “wearable technology products designed to improve physical performance.”
Interestingly, the first product of this fancy new division won’t be a simple fitness tracker, but rather a full-blown Android Wear smartwatch.
New Balance claims that this watch will “enable athletes to work out while untethered from their smartphones”. It seems this will mean that it will track the runner’s routes via GPS and enable them to play music without having to lug a phone around with them.
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Besides the devices category that will include the smartwatch, New Balance’s Digital Sport division will focus on embedding sensors into its trainers and clothing. It will also look at the performance sport category, which will include items such as a micro-fob that analyses an athlete’s performance.
The inaugural New Balance smartwatch will launch “Holiday 2016”, which means we still have the best part of a year to wait. Other products from the new Digital Sport division will follow throughout 2017 and 2018.
See how we got on with the Apple Watch:
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
