Fitbit's Aria WiFi scale tracks weight, BMI and body fat percentage (hands-on)
We might never know the untold number of people who bought Withings' WiFi scale for tweeting their daily weigh-ins, but it must have been an impressive enough figure, as Fitbit just announced something very similar. The Aria Wi-Fi Smart Scale tracks weight, BMI and body fat percentage, only instead of sending those nuggets to Twitter, it all goes straight to Fitbit's own site. For people who have never bought any of the company's products, this website will understandably be a revelation, but in fact it's the same place where Fitbit Ultra owners go to see how many calories they've burned. Even if you're a newcomer, the website happens to be quite engaging, though we suspect you'll get the most out of it if you also have a Fitbit tracker to tally your hours spent on the Stairmaster. In any case, we got some hands-on time tonight (sorry, feet-on jokes are lame), and we've got hands-on shots below to prove it.
As far as designer scales go, the Aria sure is pretty, with its glass top and bright, circular display displaying weight and body fat percentage (you'll have to log into fitbit.com to see your body mass index, or BMI). Look closely and you can see quadrants, each of which houses the sensors that collects all that data. All told, that slim, glass-topped thing should accommodate 400 pounds, according to a rep we spoke with tonight -- a claim yours truly was happily unable to test.
During our hands-on demo here at CES, we also got a chance to see the weight, BMI and body fat percentage charts on Fitbit.com, which are every bit as cheerful and intuitive as the rest of the site. (Of course, to get the full experience of monitoring exercise, you'll need that Fitbit Ultra, not that it's a bad product -- it's actually quite good at doing what it purports to do.) Our favorite feature, though, might be that the scale itself can remember up to eight different people, and roughly how much they weigh, et cetera. In another words, unless you lose loads of weight and go weeks or months without weighing in (and why would you if you were making progress?) you shouldn't be able to confuse the scale.
If you've been looking for such a thing to help keep those New Year's resolutions alive past January, you can pre-order it tomorrow for $130, though you'll have to wait until March for it to ship. Hope you can exercise some restraint until then.
Show full PR text
Fitbit Reveals Aria Wi-Fi Smart Scale at CES 2012
Fitbit continues rapid growth with new product, retail distribution and international expansion
LAS VEGAS, Nev. (Consumer Electronics Show 2012), Jan. 9, 2012 – Fitbit, the market leader in innovative health and fitness products and maker of the popular Fitbit Ultra Wireless Activity Tracker, today announced their latest Fitbit device, the Aria Wi-Fi Smart Scale. The Aria Wi-Fi Smart Scale tracks weight, body fat %, and BMI over time and integrates with Fitbit's industry-leading online social and motivational tools. Fitbit continues to experience high growth from sales of its Wireless Trackers; Fitbit Ultra Trackers are now offered in the United Kingdom and carried in 1,762 Target stores nationwide in January.
"As consumer demand continues to rise for products that combine health and technology, analysts predict the digital health industry to be worth $4 billion by 2014," said James Park, CEO and co-founder of Fitbit. "It's gratifying to see a strong positive response from retailers, consumers and analysts to our products. We're proud that Fitbit is playing a key role in building this new category."
Set Up, Step On and Get Motivated
With the launch of Fitbit Aria, Fitbit is stepping beyond Activity and Sleep trackers. "Your fitness journey is an emotional one. We want to provide an ecosystem of tools that help our users understand patterns and trends across their data so they can recognize where changes need to be made. Aria is the latest in our line of innovative and simple tools that motivate consumers to reach their health and fitness goals," said Park.
The Fitbit Aria Smart Scale can be set up in minutes and then easily taps into your Wi-Fi network to automatically upload your weight and percent (%) body fat information to Fitbit.com each time you step on the scale. Medical research studies have shown that monitoring body weight is an effective strategy to prevent weight gain, and people who weigh themselves once a day can lose up to twice the weight of those who don't do daily weigh ins.
Aria supports up to eight people in one household and uses smart technology to differentiate who is being weighed at any given time. Your personal weight information is private by default and only shared within your household or online network if you want it to be. You can actively set which friends in the Fitbit community will be part of your weight loss or weight management journey.
In addition, Fitbit.com offers additional online tools to track your weight stats and goals over time. Easy to read graphs and simple tools like body composition profile and food logging give you a comprehensive look at your weight loss journey. At Fitbit.com, you can also connect with friends and earn badges for extra motivation.
Aria ($129.95 USD) is now available for pre-sale on www.fitbit.com and will be shipping in late April 2012. Fitbit will be showing demos of Aria during CES Jan. 10-13 at booth #3117 in the Fitness TechZone (LVCC, North Hall Lower Grand Lobby).
Sean Buckley contributed to this post.
