Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp and Under Armour Inc (UA), a US sports clothing and accessories supplier, were yesterday reported to be working on a new fitness device that can detect a person’s weight and body fat percentage.
The new gadget, called UA Scale, uses Bluetooth 4.1 and would likely work in conjunction with a smartphone to remotely display fitness results in real-time, according to electronic product review Web site Pocket-lint. Neither company has confirmed they are working on the device, following a long delay in a similar fitness tracker that they were jointly developing, called the HTC Grip, which was originally scheduled to be released in the spring.
The market is now speculating that the UA Scale could replace the HTC Grip as the first fitness device rolled out by the two companies.
The UA Scale might face competition from existing products that feature similar functions, including Fitbit Inc’s wearable gadget Aria, a smart scale that tracks and syncs weight, BMI, lean mass and body-fat percentage.
HTC chief financial officer Chang Chia-lin on Oct. 30 told investors that the company expects revenues this quarter to improve from last quarter’s NT$21.4 billion (US$650.39 million), the lowest sales performance since the third quarter of 2005.
HTC shares fell 2.5 percent to close at NT$82 in Taipei trading yesterday, underperforming the TAIEX, which lost only 0.07 percent.
Source: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2015/12/03/2003633874
