Two weeks into the third quarter, HTC has just announced that the Q2 launch of the HTC Grip has been cancelled. A statement sent to us by HTC says that HTC has “decided to align GRIP with the entire product portfolio for health and fitness launching later this year.” The statement also makes references to vision and approach refinement to HTC health and fitness category.
When we got to spend a bit of time with the HTC Grip earlier this year, we were quite impressed by the design and build quality, but the wearable tracking device was a bit bulky and didn’t offer anything that set it apart from the competition. The HTC Grip did feature embedded GPS so that users could track their runs or bike rides without needing to be connected to a smartphone, but the feature was negated by the fact that the Grip didn’t feature native music storage and playback. If HTC can find a way to address these issues and launch an updated Grip later this year, they might have a winner on their hands.
It’s unclear what other health and fitness products HTC is working on, but we’d love to see the HTC Grip launch alongside a suite of new and innovative wearable products.
“Through our partnership with Under Armour, we have continued to refine our vision and approach to the health and fitness category. Our goal is to offer best-in-class products for our customers and partners. After extensive wear testing and user feedback, we have decided to align GRIP with the entire product portfolio for health and fitness launching later this year. This will be a state-of-the-art comprehensive portfolio of products for this category powered by UA RECORD. We are excited to launch this new comprehensive product suite and will share further details as we get closer to launch.”
– HTC
