Nowadays, we get surrounded by electronic devices of all sorts. It has become an integral part of our everyday lives to continuously use electronic appliances for almost everything. We wish to eat something, a tap on the phone and food arrives within minutes; watch a movie, simply tap. The electronics industry has grown exponentially and is still going rapidly. Even for health-related issues, we have created intelligent appliances.
To keep track of the number of steps we walk, the number of calories we have burnt, the number of hours we have slept- all this data has been made available solely by wearing a band on our wrists, i.e., a smartwatch or a fitness tracker. Our productivity-driven routines and well-being-obsessed lifestyles have led to the creation of devices that monitor our activities. We trust so much in the automated convenient process that we fail to recognize that there might be flaws within the system.
The most trusted brands and devices also manufacture faulty designs sometimes. A recent example is Fitbit recalling their units due to potential burn hazards that could sustain consumers’ injuries.
What does Fitbit do?
Like the Apple Watch or MI bands, Fitbit also produces fitness trackers that include a range of smartwatches and other monitoring devices such as pedometers (detects the number of steps you have walked, if you were wearing the device). Unlike Apple and other companies, Fitbit only focuses on the well-being of a person’s everyday life and produces f.itness based electronics accordingly.
What happened: Recent events
As per the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the fitness electronics giant Fitbit, with the parent organization being Google, recalls around 1.7 million units of smartwatches to avert potential injuries caused due to their appliances.
The smartwatch company has ordered a voluntary recall for their Fitbit Ionic smartwatch models that contain a lithium-ion battery. The battery is a threat to the wearers as it might potentially overheat and cause a burn injury to anyone wearing the watch on their wrist. The firm sold about 700,00 units of those watches overseas. The decision to recall will inevitably affect all of those units. On top of that, the decision will also impact the units sold in the United States of America.
The model Fitbit Ionic was one of the first models that included a built-in blood oxygen sensor. Its release occurred in 2017. Apart from that, it didn’t have many other smart functions. However, the silver lining was the watch’s battery life. It was one of its best features at the time. The model was released after Fitbit had successfully taken over Pebble. Sadly, Three years later, in 2020, the watch was discontinued. However, the firm had derived whopping sales for the particular model then (mentioned earlier).
As far as the recent events are concerned, the firm received complaints regarding burn injuries inflicted due to overheating issues persisting in the device. The batch of complaints included third-degree and second-degree burns sustained by consumers. However, the company said that the concerned faulty devices account for almost negligible devices sold (0.01 percent of all devices sold). But to maintain the brand’s goodwill among the customers and adhere to their principles, Fitbit planned to recall all units sold voluntarily.
A message to our users: Customer safety is always Fitbit’s top priority and out of an abundance of caution, we’ve announced a voluntary recall of Fitbit Ionic smartwatches. Please visit https://t.co/1p0SOTzgQy. Thank you for your continued support. pic.twitter.com/IvVtYs53md
— fitbit (@fitbit) March 2, 2022
Customers owing the particular smartwatch model “Ionic” are to refrain from using the electronic device. The consumers will be able to claim a refund as well. The company has also pledged to provide a discount of 40% off specific Fitbit devices.
YouTube: 2022 Google Fitbit Ionic Recall Details + Recall Discount Offerings (Li Fan)
Photo credit: The feature image is symbolic and was provided by Fitbit (Google). The product shots (1, 2) in the body of the article were taken by DReifGalaxyM31.
