Amazon AirPods-style earphones with fitness features may launch soon

Amazon is taking a leaf from Apple's playbook and launching its own wireless earphones, AirPods-style. According to a report, they may not just be the company's first wireless earphones, but also its first health device.

CNBC reported Monday that the company is working on an exciting proposition – a pair of wireless Bluetooth headphones, which will have a subwoofer, and also transmit fitness metrics to a user's smartphone.

The earphones, which have been codenamed "Puget" come with a built-in accelerometer according to the report, and will be able to track how a user runs and the calories he/she has burnt at what pace. If all indications are right, this device may also have access to Amazon's smart voice assistant Alexa and Echo.

The company is hosting a big hardware event on Thursday. While it is mum on what it will launch at the event, the rumour mill has been buzzing hard about an Echo device with "better sound quality for music."

It is becoming more likely that these headphones could see the light of day. Amazon isn't expected to launch Fire TV hardware at the event – it launched the Fire Cube at IFA just days ago.

The biggest competition for Amazon's earphones will remain the AirPods, so it will have to offer a more tempting proposition – it is expected to undercut Apple in terms of price. AirPods are currently atop the market in terms of sale numbers of wireless Bluetooth earphones. They count for 60 percent of the global market share.

However, Amazon has an advantage – it can offer these as alternatives for AirPods to Android users, which is a large market to appeal to. Not just that, it would be interesting to see how the headphones tie-up with existing Echo hardware – is a seamless transition between the headphones and speakers in the works? We can only speculate.

Amazon declined to reveal anything when reached out for comment by CNBC.