Fitbit’s Ionic smartwatch is getting 60 new apps including Yelp, Uber and Deezer

A lack of apps wasn’t my biggest issue with the Fitbit Ionic — however it had been up there. The inclusion of a third-party app store was one in all the ways that the corporate was wanting to line the device with the exception of the remainder of its merchandise, and apart from one or two of status partners, there extremely wasn’t a lot of value mentioning.

Things square measure wanting somewhat higher as of this morning. the corporate noted in an exceedingly web log post that sixty apps and a hundred watch faces are another or square measure coming back before long to the Ionic system. They’re not all extremely notable, however there square measure enough massive names on the list to warrant a re-examination at Fitbit’s 1st true smartwatch.

Some biggies include: The the big apple Times, Yelp, Uber, Lyft, Nest and United Airlines. Deezer’s conjointly entering into on the action next year, changing into the second notable music service once Pandora to shop for in to the Ionic system. The streaming service is hoping to choose up some new devotees by transportation offline streaming to the watch. In terms of name recognition, it’s a notable step down from a Spotify, however once it involves taking music and departure the phone behind, it’s a begin a minimum of.

Some of the new apps attain the peak of the vacation gift shopping for season, therefore maybe they’ll build the Ionic a additional tempting, robot compatible various to the Apple Watch. It’s a bummer, of course, that the merchandise didn’t launch with this full associate degree app choice, however if nothing else, it shows that Fitbit’s committed to assembling the issue up as quickly as doable.

After all, after we spoke with corporate executive James Park throughout at the device’s launch, he told United States that the company’s purchase of rock was basically a software package acquisition. Fitbit knew it might be launching associate degree app system from scratch, associate degreed Pebble’s team had the event tools to create porting an app to its new smartwatch OS a far easier task. Developing for one more new app store may be a pain, however a minimum of Fitbit’s creating the duty slightly easier.

Of course, the Ionic still has its share of problems. I’m not extremely a disciple of the hardware style, which, among different things, isn’t nearly versatile enough to suit on smaller wrists, sound out an enormous potential user base. however as multiple acquisitions have shown, the company’s all-in here, and maybe subsequent generation device can address those problems because the app choice continues to grow and users shift their focus toward good devices.