Jawbone UP (Photo : YouTube)
Jawbone announced their newest fitness tracker products: the UP2 and the UP4, which supports NFC payments only for American Express.
The California-based wearables company has been in the fitness tracker business for the past four years, but it is Jawbone's first time to introduce a new non-fitness-related feature on its new UP4.
Jawbone's newest UP4 has a price tag of $200 and is very similar to the Jawbone UP3, which is expected to be finally launched in the U.S. within the following months. Both have the same monitoring capabilities for the heart rate, pedometer and sleep.
However, the big difference is the UP4's NFC payment feature. Jawbone is seemingly trying to compete with Samsung Pay and Apple Pay as both also support payments for American Express and more, according to PC Pro.
Because of the UP4's lack of screen, users will then need to use their smartphones to open app the Jawbone app and manage their payment details and organize their credit cards. The Jawbone UP4's Amex NFC payment scheme is currently limited to the U.S.
Jawbone also unveiled its new $99 UP2 fitness tracker. It is the successor to its UP24 model in 2014.
The UP2 looks the same as the UP3, but Jawbone decided to take out the heart rate monitor to slash part of the cost and make it cheaper, according to Tech Spot. Meanwhile, the UP3 is expected to cost $20 less than the NFC-enabled Jawbone UP4.
Jawbone is not releasing the new fitness trackers in the U.K. yet, but the company promised to do an international launch of the UP2, UP3 and UP4 this year.
