The Xiaomi Mi Band has been a tremendous success and it is currently the #2 smart wearable device with 24.6% market share. It is no surprise that they could sell 2.8 million units especially when it has a low RM59 price tag and an impressive month-long battery life.
Now a newer version is in the works and Xiaomi appears to be upping its game with the inclusion of a heart rate sensor. An unconfirmed source claims that the new Mi Band was spotted in Taiwan’s NCC certification body as the Mi Band 1S. From the purported leaked photo, it shows a similar design but it gets an extra sensor underneath.
In terms of wearable devices, Fitbit is still number 1 with over 3.9 million units sold, taking about 34% market share. In comparison with other wearables, Fitbit is solely focused on fitness and they currently have official presence in Malaysia. Its Charge HR (RM510) and Surge (RM968) wearables offer continuous heart rate monitoring and they last 7 days on a single charge. This is quite remarkable considering other smart watches only offer heart rate reading on demand or at specific time intervals.
Obviously the new Mi Band 1S with a heart rate sensor would take a hit in battery life. But who knows if they can tweak to to last more than 7 days and if they priced this correctly, Xiaomi might have a chance to overtake Fitbit by end of this year. The main difference of course is the platform and fitness community which Fitbit has established firmly. Xiaomi isn’t on par yet but if it is cheap, there’s nothing much to complain if it just works.
