New Steph Curry screenshots trace Fitbit’s Whoop rival could launch quickly

Google’s upcoming screenless Fitbit band could also be nearer to launch than first thought. Newly surfaced footage reveals Steph Curry sporting the unreleased gadget way back to ten weeks in the past, suggesting Google has had it on a high-profile wrist nicely earlier than the latest teaser drew wider consideration.

This suggests this was not a last-minute teaser put collectively for publicity, however one thing that has been in use behind the scenes for some time. For anybody following the story, it makes the potential for an official announcement within the close to future really feel way more lifelike.

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The timeline now appears extra attention-grabbing

When the newer teaser first appeared, the massive speaking level was the gadget itself. A cloth-style wrist band with no seen show, worn by Steph Curry, instantly pushed the dialog towards a attainable Fitbit transfer into the screenless restoration tracker class.

But we dug round his instagram account and located pictures of the gadget in different movies and posts. For instance, this older March 6 footage modifications the angle barely. The screenshots clearly present the identical type of band on Curry’s wrist, with the now acquainted mild gray centre part and orange accents.

For a tool that seems near remaining {hardware}, that type of prolonged public use usually factors to a product that’s shifting via the ultimate levels earlier than launch. Companies recurrently place near-finished wearables with athletes, ambassadors and creators nicely forward of an announcement, partly to construct familiarity and partly to check real-world utilization.

And how about this from 10 weeks in the past.

And there are extra pictures.

What makes this particularly notable is that the design appears constant throughout all these sightings. There don’t seem like seen modifications between the sooner footage and the newer teaser, which might counsel the {hardware} is locked in.

Interestingly sufficient, some pictures counsel that the monitoring half could also be on the within of the wrist. There isn’t any seen bump that we might spot on the highest of the wrist – solely the band.

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A transparent transfer towards the Whoop class

The larger story stays what this gadget is making an attempt to be.

Everything concerning the kind issue factors towards a passive well being and restoration wearable fairly than a standard smartwatch or health band. There isn’t any seen display, no apparent notification interface and no signal that that is meant to switch one thing just like the Fitbit Charge.

Instead, this appears a lot nearer to the class at the moment dominated by Whoop and, more and more, different screenless trackers targeted on sleep, restoration, readiness and long-term wellness tendencies.

That would make plenty of sense for Google proper now. Fitbit’s smartwatch identification has change into more and more tied to the Pixel Watch line, so a devoted screenless band might give the model a brand new lane to develop into, notably round subscription-led well being insights.

If Curry has been sporting this for the previous two months, the gadget could already be within the remaining levels of launch prep. That might imply an announcement within the coming weeks, doubtlessly tied to a broader Fitbit or Pixel occasion window.

This article initially appeared on Gadgets & Wearables, the primary media outlet to report the story.

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