Halo app and band
Source: Amazon
Amazon’s health and fitness tracker is now available for purchase by anyone.
The Halo band costs $ 99.99, includes access to the Halo app, and comes with a six-month subscription to associated health services. Amazon launched the device in August, but it was available to consumers by invitation only.
The device competes with Apple Watch and devices from Fitbit. Amazon designed the Halo to provide a comprehensive picture of users’ personal health and well-being by including features that measure body fat percentage, activity level, sleep, and a tool that tracks how users sound to others by checking the tone of their voice.
Initial reviews were not favorable. For example, the Washington Post recently said that the “Halo gathers the most intimate information we’ve seen from a consumer health gadget – and makes it the absolute least.”
Amazon said it has introduced improvements to the Halo based on feedback from invited users only. Among them is a new feature called insights that shows users trends or patterns based on their activity and sleep, as well as their voice, such as “peak periods of positivity and energy”.
It also introduces on-demand workouts from a range of popular fitness brands, such as Orangetheory Fitness, Aaptiv and Openfit.
The Halo represents Amazon’s first foray into the fitness wearables market. The hardware business has traditionally focused on home devices such as the range of smart Echo speakers and Fire TV streaming video devices.
Amazon was widely expected to spend years preparing to enter the wearables market. Wearables give the company another entry point to learn more about customers when they are not interacting with Amazon’s website.