Earlier today, fitness tracker hardware and software company Fitbit filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange. Since the regulatory filing went public, observers have been scouring the paperwork for information on Fitbit’s financials, sales numbers, and notes about the competition. The Financial Times‘s Tim Bradshaw noticed that that Fitbit cites Apple and the recently-launched Apple Watch as the top billed competitor in the IPO Risk Factors section:
For example, Apple has recently introduced the Apple Watch smartwatch, with broad-based functionalities including some health and fitness tracking capabilities. We also compete with a wide range of stand-alone health and fitness-related mobile apps that can be purchased or downloaded through mobile app stores.Since Apple launched health tracking products like the Health app in iOS 8 and the Apple Watch Activity and Workout apps, Fitbit has moved to distance itself from the Cupertino-based company. The Fitbit hardware products were removed from Apple’s online and physical retail stores late last year, while, on the software front, Fitbit has stated that it has no plans to update its products to work with Apple’s HealthKit software framework.
Given that Fitbit’s hardware products are in the same category as the Apple Watch, it is also interesting to take a look at Fitbit’s financial numbers. According to the IPO documents, Fitbit sold just under 11 million devices across 2014 and reported revenues of $745 million with an average corporate margin of 48% during that year. As for Apple, the company says that the Apple Watch’s margins, at least at launch, will come in under the company’s corporate average.
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Not going to work with HealthKit? Not you are just being stupid and ignoring 50% of the market. Good luck with your Android users.
There are 3rd party apps on iOS for FitBits that work with HealthKit, tough…
I bought it over the Apple Watch because I can wear it 24 hours a day, even while I’m sleeping, instead of charging it all night, and because it samples much more frequently.
I’m hoping the software gets fixed. There’s no reason it can’t be fixed without having to buy a new device, and this seems to be a lower cost sensor to tide me over until the much improved Apple Watch 2.
If Fitbit doesn’t make a better product or jump onto Health kit, I feel it will not do well. I had a flex and it stopped working after a year and have a charge at the moment. It works fine, but I expect it will stop working after a year or so.
The only reason I still have my scale from them is because Fitbit Syncs with myfitnesspal and then myfitnesspal syncs with Health kit, which is pretty ridiculous.