Earlier this week, Withings announced that its Blood Pressure Monitor receieved FDA clearance and was shipping immediately in the US. Today, competitor iHealth announced an aggressive push into expanding its BP3 Blood Pressure Monitoring System into multiple national retail chains. Both devices feature blood pressure tracking via free applications for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. Both devices also launched at CES 2011 at the beginning of the year.
iHealth received FDA approval for its device back in February. Shortly thereafter select Apple stores began selling the device.
Today, iHealth's device is available in every US and Canadian Apple store, according to the company. It will also be featured at Apple.com, Costco.com, Bestbuy.com, Kohls.com and Target.com this July, and in stores at Target and Best Buy in Q4.
While neither Withings nor Apple has announced plans to stock its Withings blood pressure device in retail stores, Withing's WiFi-enabled weight scale (WiScale) is currently sold in Apple stores. Could the BP monitor follow suit?
While the Withings Blood Pressure Monitor and BP3 Blood Pressure Monitoring Systme are similar devices, there is one obvious difference between them: price point. Withings retails for $129.99, and the iHealth BP3 for $99.95.