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Disclosure: I work at Fitbit but don't speak for Fitbit. I've often heard predictions that Fitbit was doomed because its special-purpose devices would be subsu
by brlewis 10y ago
Disclosure: I work at Fitbit but don't speak for Fitbit.
I've often heard predictions that Fitbit was doomed because its special-purpose devices would be subsumed by general-purpose devices the way MP3 players were subsumed by smart phones. My retort has often been, "Yeah, just like Palm Pilot killed iPods".
Timing is important. The technology has to reach a certain level before it can have wide consumer appeal. Smart watches today are a niche tech toy, not something everybody wants to use. We're at the iPod stage, not the iPhone stage, in wearable computing.
- jbob2000 10y agoYou sound like the religious doomsday predictors, who change the date of the doomsday every time their previous prediction comes out false. iPod sales went up year-over-year, "wearables" are going down year-over-year. It's just a silly gimmick!
- brlewis 10y agoIn my analogy, fitness trackers are like iPods and "wearables" are a conflation of iPods and Palm Pilots or other PDAs. So for "iPod sales" you might look at the latest quarterly reports from Fitbit and Garmin. https://investor.fitbit.com/press/press-releases/press-release-details/2016/Fitbit-Reports-587M-Q216-Revenue-003-GAAP-EPS012-Non-GAAP-EPS-and-Confirms-Revenue-and-Profit-Guidance-for-FY16/default.aspx https://investor.fitbit.com/press/press-releases/press-relea... http://www.garmin.com/en-US/company/investors/earnings/ http://www.garmin.com/en-US/company/investors/earnings/ EDIT: Even if you lump all "wearables" into one category, Fitbit's increased sales are enough to offset any smartwatch decrease, so the one fact you included among your vague insults is wrong.
- drinchev 10y agoFitbit is awesome. I use Fitbit Flex 1.0 and Apple Watch in a combo. Fitbit works so well and is so cheap ( 60 Euros ) that I don't care what I do with it and it has an API. Because of the price Apple Watch will never be able to track : 1) My gym workouts ( having 400 Euro thing in the gym where I hit the boxing bag - no way ) 2) My sleep ( I have to charge it every night, so impossible to do that ) 3) My 3 days camping holiday ( Wood, scratches, fire, etc.. ) And anyway look what I did [1] with Fitbit's API & ubersicht [2]. 1: http://imgur.com/z9b3C9A http://imgur.com/z9b3C9A 2: http://tracesof.net/uebersicht/ http://tracesof.net/uebersicht/
- brlewis 10y agoSlick!