Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN), unveiled its new activity tracker with a twist: it’s for kids instead of adults.
About a month ago, fast-food chain McDonalds tried to do the same by introducing a step tracker into its Happy Meals. The operation tanked in less than 48 hours when a blanketed recall was issued for the Step-It device.
However, comparing Garmin to McDonalds is like comparing apples to hamburgers. And our best guess is that, one, the technology is much smarter in Garmin’s version, and two, the company has bigger plans for using the resulting data to respond to consumer habits…no matter how young or small.
The Garmin Vívofit Jr. is being marketed as a motivator and activity tracker to encourage kids to “stay on the move.” Garmin packed the technology in a kid-friendly shell design and chose its main functionality to be step and sleep tracking. The piece is also swim friendly and features a year-plus battery life for 24/7 wearability.
And like all wearables on the market, there’s an app to match. The free app will be monitored by parents and suggests they promote 60 minutes of daily play for their child. From the app, parents can add multiple children and see their daily activity, responsibilities, sleep and more when the Vívofit Jr. automatically syncs to their smartphone.
“The app motivates kids with fun and educational mobile adventures, and family step challenges. It also includes helpful tools for parents to motivate kids, who can assign responsibilities and agreed-upon rewards for completed tasks,” said a Garmin representative.
Like their adult counterparts, kids develop healthy – or unhealthy – preferences through habit forming. The Garmin kids wearable takes into account the power of habit building with abilities like timed teeth brushings and other task management assignments from parents.
The wearable is being marketed for kids four to nine years old at $80.
Photo courtesy Garmin
