HTC's wearable is a fitness tracker, built with the help of Under Armour

HTC watch
Fitness first

You need to make sure you've clearly defined your terms if you're making a long-awaited entry into the wearables market, and an HTC insider has been at pains to point out that we'll be seeing a fitness tracker rather than a smartwatch at MWC in March.

With the Apple Watch tracking your runs and the Fitbit Charge showing the time of day, it's not always an obvious distinction - but it looks like HTC's upcoming device will focus on health and fitness and not have any advanced Android Wear-style software.

It makes sense considering the firm is partnering with fitness brand Under Armour for the launch, though most rumours had suggested a smartwatch was still on the cards. Not so, according to the source speaking to Forbes.

Hardware and software

Unfortunately, the HTC leaker was unable to provide any other details about what the new device will offer, so we'll have to sit tight and wait. Sleep, step, heart rate and calorie tracking are the obvious features but it would be nice to see something new too.

The bundled software will be important too: HTC's fitness band is likely to come with the new UA Record tracking app that will sync all of your logged data and show you just how well or badly you're doing.

The mole wasn't able to cast much light on the HTC One M9 we're expecting to see, although he/she did say that it would only offer an incremental upgrade on the One M8, somewhat echoing a leak from earlier this week. We'll know for sure in a few weeks' time.

David Nield
Freelance Contributor

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.