Garmin leaps aboard fitness tracker bandwagon with Vivoki and Vivofit
An activity monitor designed to track your employees' activity – does that sound a teensy bit Big Brother-ish to anyone else?
Garmin is the latest company to launch an activity tracker – or rather two. And while the Vivofit fits closely in with rival offerings from FitBit and Nike, the Vivoki’s focus is a little bit different.
While the monitor can be used in a personal, individual way, Garmin has designed it primarily with employers in mind. The idea is to encourage your workers to lead healthier lives by tracking their movement, setting daily activity goals and even pitting them against each other using leader boards and the Garmin Connect online community.
While making people healthier is clearly a valid and laudable goal, we wonder if some employees might feel a tad aggrieved to have their movements monitored by bosses.
Anyway, the tracker itself can be slipped in a pocket or clipped to clothes, and is water resistant. It uploads data wirelessly and automatically, and has five LEDs that light up to indicate how close the user is to achieving his or her daily activity goal.
The Vivoki is due for a May 2014 release date, with pricing TBC.
Vivofit – a £100 wrist tracker
Garmin has also made a play for the more personal side of the fitness market with Vivofit, a rubbery wristband tracker that records steps and calculates the distance travelled and the calories burnt. It also monitors your sleep.
Unlike most trackers it runs off a removeable watch battery (Garmin says it’ll last around a year on a single one), but there is Bluetooth LE built-in for syncing to Garmin Connect and adding the optional heart rate monitor.
The Vivofit is available now for £100.
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