Amazon launches its first fitness band in bid to take on Fitbit, others

Amazon.com Inc on Thursday launched a fitness band and app, “Halo”, as the e-commerce giant looks to take on Apple, Fitbit and Samsung in an increasingly crowded fitness tracker market.

The Halo band would be priced at $99.99 while the app membership would cost $3.99 per month, according to Amazon.

The market for wearables is highly crowded, with Apple Inc being the leader with a 29.3% share in the first quarter of 2020, according to data from market research firm International Data Corp.

Rivalry for a greater share of the fitness band market has prompted Apple and Samsung to add features for health tracking, including electrocardiogram and blood pressure sensor.

Alphabet Inc-owned Google said in November it would buy Fitbit Inc for $2.1 billion. Shares of the fitness tracker maker fell marginally in morning trading.

Amazon said the water-resistant band, with a battery life of up to 7 days, contains an accelerometer, a temperature sensor and a heart rate monitor, among other features.