Apple Developing New Fitness Tracker Aimed at Rivaling Whoop - Bloomberg
Short summary
Apple is developing a wristband fitness tracker without a screen to compete with Whoop, marking an expansion beyond its smartwatch strategy. The company has prototypes in the works with executive backing, though it hasn't committed to launching the product yet.
- Apple is creating a screenless health and fitness tracker modeled after Whoop's wrist-worn device
- The project has been in development for several months and now includes working prototypes
- Top executives support the effort, but Apple hasn't made a final decision on whether to release it
Full summary
Apple is building a screenless fitness tracker to compete with Whoop, the wrist-worn device that's become popular with athletes and fitness enthusiasts. Unlike the Apple Watch, which functions as a full smartwatch, this new device would strip away the display and focus purely on health monitoring. The company has been working on this for several months and already has prototypes in development.
The project has backing from Apple's top leadership, which signals serious intent. However, the company hasn't committed to actually releasing it yet—this is still in the exploration phase. The move suggests Apple recognizes a gap in its wearables strategy. While the Apple Watch dominates the smartwatch market, it's bulkier and pricier than dedicated fitness trackers, and the Watch's battery life can't match devices built solely for health tracking.
Whoop has carved out a distinct market by targeting serious athletes and fitness-focused users who want detailed recovery metrics, training load data, and sleep analysis without the distraction of notifications and apps. A screenless Apple tracker would let the company compete for this audience while maintaining its ecosystem advantage—users could view their data on iPhone and get Apple's polish on the experience. Whether Apple actually ships this depends on internal decisions that haven't been finalized yet.