While Fitbit continues to make a big push on the health tracking front with its collection of fitness trackers and its Ionic smartwatch, it could well be planning to expand its wearable family to include a smartwatch for kids.
That's according to people familiar with the matter as reported by Bloomberg. Apparently there have been internal discussions at Fitbit about the idea of a wearable for younger users for several months.
There's no indication of what kind of features a potential Fitbit kids smartwatch could offer, but it's likely it would fall in line with other watches already available that can do things like track location, let users play games and allow children to quickly get in contact with their parents. We imagine there'd be some fitness tracking features packed in there as well.
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Fitbit's current crop of wearables are recommended for anyone aged 13 or above, so this would definitely be new territory for the company if it decided to enter the space. There is also plenty of factors to weigh up if it does decide to build one, particularly around aspects like data privacy. A report back in October last year focused on this very issue calling into question a series of kids smartwatches that were apparently at risk of hacking.
If Fitbit did decide to launch a smartwatch for kids, it would be the first of the big wearable tech names to do it. Garmin has launched its line of Vivofit Jr fitness trackers to encourage kids to stay active, but it has yet to offer the kind of connected features like GPS and mobile connectivity like it does on its wearables for adults.
Will it happen? We're sure there's a lot of parents that might like the sound of a Fitbit for kids. At the moment it looks like working out how to improve glucose tracking and looking after your heart from its wearables are the priorities right now. But we wouldn't be all that surprised if an Ionic for kids turned up at some point in the future as well.
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By Michael Sawh
Michael Sawh has been covering the wearable tech industry since the very first Fitbit landed back in 2011. Previously the resident wearable tech expert at Trusted Reviews, he also marshaled the features section of T3.com.
He also regularly contributed to T3 magazine when they needed someone to talk about fitness trackers, running watches, headphones, tablets, and phones.
Michael writes for GQ, Wired, Coach Mag, Metro, MSN, BBC Focus, Stuff, TechRadar and has made several appearances on the BBC Travel Show to talk all things tech.
Michael is a lover of all things sports and fitness-tech related, clocking up over 15 marathons and has put in serious hours in the pool all in the name of testing every fitness wearable going. Expect to see him with a minimum of two wearables at any given time.