Close to half a year late. That’s how long Jawbone took to start delivering on pre-orders of the company’s new flagship the Jawbone UP3. Plagued by manufacturing woes amid pressure from customers who pre-ordered, the release of flag ships activity trackers from other companies like Basis, Fitbit, Microsoft and just Apple, the once “most advanced activity tracker known to man” is now merely a guest who’s late to the party.
2 days ago, I received an email update regarding the Jawbone UP3 which I pre-ordered:
“We’re writing to provide you with an update on your UP3 pre-order…We anticipate UP3 pre-orders placed on Jawbone.com to begin shipping from our warehouse on 4/20, with all pre-orders fulfilled by mid-May. The pre-orders will ship in the order received.
…We want to thank you for your patience as we’ve worked to deliver an advanced multi-sensor product that defies industry standards. When we announced UP3 late last year we were confident we would start mass manufacturing the device and begin shipping within a few weeks. However, as we began to scale our manufacturing process it became clear that, while most units passed our high bar of quality and excellence, a proportion did not. In particular, we were not achieving the level of water resistance we had passed in the design and initial production stages. For this reason, UP3 will now ship with water resistance equivalent to what UP24 provides. This means that while UP3 is resistant to everyday splashing – including while washing hands or in the shower – it is unsuitable for swimming or submerged use.
We would like to apologize if you pre-ordered UP3 on the basis that it would be suitable for swimming. If you wish to cancel your pre-order, you will be able to do so with no charge. Simply respond to this email confirming you would like to cancel, and our team will process your request.”
I’ve owned and reviewed every piece of Jawbone tracker that was released and with the exception of the Jawbone UP Move and enjoyed all of them, durability issues aside.
At $179.99, the Jawbone UP3 is the priciest activity tracker from Jawbone. At that price, I could’ve gotten myself a Basis Peak, Fitbit Charge HR or the Microsoft Band but I’m waiting patiently. Jawbone UP3 has a trump card in the form of advanced activity recognition; the more you do, the activity tracker learns, recognises and automatically logs your activities. There’s also resting heart rate measurements and advanced sleep metrics. The 10m water resistance is gone but I’m unfazed.
In every sense, the Jawbone UP3 is still an exciting product to look forward to. Like they say, better late than never.
Source: Jawbone
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