Amazon unveils new wearable product ‘Halo’—Here’s how it works

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CNBC’s Chrissy Farr tried out Amazon’s new wearable device, designed to compete with the Apple Watch and FitBit. She shares how her product usage went. Subscribe to CNBC PRO for access to investor and analyst insights on Amazon and more:

Amazon is entering the wearables market in a big way.

The company on Thursday introduced a wristband for health and fitness tracking called Halo, alongside a subscription service and smartphone app.

The space is currently dominated by the Apple Watch and devices from Fitbit, which is awaiting regulatory approval for an acquisition by Alphabet’s Google. Amazon’s Halo product builds on these older fitness tracking devices with features that have never been seen in a mainstream wearable device, including one that tracks a user’s emotional state by listening to the tone of their voice, and another that provides a three-dimensional rendering of their body with an estimated body fat percentage.

It’s a departure for Amazon’s hardware business, which has previously focused on in-home devices, such as the Echo smart speakers and the Fire TV streaming video devices. Amazon showed off some wearable devices at its annual hardware event last fall, including wireless headphones and a set of glasses with built-in access to the Alexa voice assistant. But Halo is its first real shot at capturing a piece the fast-growing wearables market, which Gartner last year estimated would top $50 billion in 2020.

The company has spent several years preparing. Amazon’s Melissa Cha, a vice president at Halo, said the company already had expertise around machine learning and computer vision, but expanding into health required a whole new set of hires.

“We did a global search to find the best experts,” she said. “We found cardiologists, fitness experts, and people who had spent their careers researching sleep and wellness.”

Amazon has stressed its commitment to privacy with this new device and pledged that it won’t use the insights to sell health-related products to its users. But it is a way for the company to learn more about its users’ health habits and gather feedback along the way.

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34 Comments

  1. If you have a smart phone, a Apple Watch or a fit bit you are being tracked. Amazon is no different so i don’t know why everyone is so against this. Afraid of being chipped while you walk around with a cell phone attached to you at all times

  2. They are cloning you mind, body and soul and will trap you to the material world for eternity so you can pay taxes forever and you won't be able to die even if you try your best to get out. Revelations 9:6
    “And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.”

  3. Amazon has far richer behavioral pattern related data through amazon's shopping cart data. I believe Amazon will use this information instead to improve their NLP/NLU algorithms so they can enrich their healthcare service offerings. For e.g. AI powered physician assistant that can help doctors take better notes and decipher the feelings of the patients for better care.

  4. I'll pass. I've never been into wearing homing devices disguised as workout watches. I workout regularly. I know what to eat, what not to eat, and how much to eat to keep my weight in check. Its bad enough our cellphones are trackers. #nothanks

  5. Consumer tracking data is by far the most valuable information a business can have. Who wouldn't entrust someone they never met with the responsibility of collect every intimate detail of their lives? Someone with a functional brain of course.

  6. Chinese Tech: "I'm offering you a service that betters your life but I'm going to skim your personal-data while you use it."
    US Tech: "Skimming your personal data IS the service we're offering you!!!"

  7. And people get even the slightest bit of jealousy for bezos 200 billion worth and cant figure out why they are making so much money. Do you absolutely need it? Doesnt your phone already tell you the time in like 4 different places? The same people that buy this are the same people on unemployment and cant figure out why they are broke. But thats none of my business though.

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