“I don’t think a week goes by where I see at least one article on Seeking Alpha or elsewhere detailing how Fitbit is crushing Apple in some respect,” Bill Maurer writes for Seeking Alpha. “While many will agree that Fitbit leads the wearable space in terms of unit sales, the company’s product map is completely different from what Apple is trying to do. In fact, I believe if Apple really wanted to, it could wipe out Fitbit today.”
“Apple’s products go for several hundred or even thousands of dollars each,” Maurer writes. “Fitbit offers devices at the lower end of the price scale.”
“I can understand to a point when you look at Fitbit’s top-tier devices making a possible comparison to the Apple Watch, but where I disagree wholeheartedly is when most just compare the entirety of Fitbit to Apple (and the Watch),” Maurer writes. “Apple may have generated up to $5 billion in revenues from the Watch last year while Fitbit as an entire company did just $1.86 billion.”
Apple Watch
“I believe Apple could really doom Fitbit if it wanted to. With the billions that the technology spends on research and development each year, I’m sure Apple could launch a $50 fitness tracker if it wanted to. The product would likely sell quite well, and Fitbit’s shares would plunge overnight on the announcement,” Maurer writes. “However, this doesn’t likely fit in with Apple’s “premium” strategy at the moment.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Fitbit devices are mere training wheels for Apple Watch. Fitbit products can only perform a very small subset of the kaleidoscopic range of features that Apple Watch offers users.
Fitbit is “beating” Apple in the same way as some Android phone and Windows PC makers are “beating” Apple: Unit sales. In other words, Fitbit (and some Android phone and Windows PC makers) can only “win” a race in which Apple does not compete.
Flooding the market with cheap junk is not winning. Selling units to the most desirable customers who spend billions within your ecosystems while reaping the lion’s share of the industry’s profits is winning.
As always (when the company is being properly run):
Apple sells premium products at premium prices to premium customers. — SteveJack, October 23, 2012
SEE ALSO:
Apple Watch predicted to capture 50% market share in 2016 – March 17, 2016
Thanks to Apple Watch, smartwatches are now more popular than Swiss watches – February 19, 2016
Canalys: Apple shipped over 12 million Apple Watches in 2015, two-thirds of all smartwatches shipped in 2015 – February 5, 2016
Apple Watch kickstarted interest in wearable devices; sales of fitness trackers and VR headsets are set for rapid growth – February 2, 2016
Apple Watch beats Rolex in luxury brands ranking – January 29, 2016
Apple Watch revenues expected to be $8.4 billion for first year – January 26, 2016
Juniper: Apple Watch has already cornered the smartwatch market – January 12, 2016
Apple COO: ‘Apple Watch marks the end of single-function wrist devices’ – January 7, 2016
Fitbit either doesn’t understand Apple Watch or hopes consumers won’t; neither is good for the company – January 6, 2016
Fitbit exec calls Apple Watch a ‘toy,’ Fitbit shares crater more than 13% after unveiling Apple Watch Sport knockoff – January 5, 2016
It’s official: The Apple Watch is destroying the so-called competition – November 20, 2015
As Apple Watch sales ramp, Swiss watch makers suffer biggest slump in six years – November 19, 2015
Apple Watch models take top four spots on 10 most-wanted smartwatches list – November 18, 2015
Apple Watch is 2016’s hottest holiday gift – November 18, 2015
Apple has already sold more than $1.7 billion worth of Apple Watches – October 29, 2015
Strategy Analytics: Apple Watch sells 4.5 million units in Q315, takes 74% global smartwatch market share – October 28, 2015
Apple Watch users are abandoning traditional watches – September 15, 2015
Over 1 million Apple Watches already sold in China – September 3, 2015
Apple Watch already dominates smart-wearables market, says IDC – August 28, 2015
IDC estimates Apple sold 3.6 million Apple Watch units in Q2 – August 27, 2015
Best Buy CEO: Apple Watch demand is ‘so strong’ that we’re expanding sales to all 1,050 stores – August 25, 2015
Swiss watch exports decline most since 2009 – August 20, 2015
Apple Watch takes 88% of total smartwatch revenue – August 14, 2015
Apple Watch kills a entire industry in three months – August 12, 2015
U.S. wristwatch sales post biggest drop in seven years after Apple Watch debut – August 7, 2015
Apple Watch dominates smartwatches with 75% market share – July 28, 2015
Juniper Research: Apple is world’s #1 smartwatch maker – July 23, 2015
Canalys: Apple ships 4.2 million Apple Watches in Q2 to become world’s top wearables vendor – July 21, 2015
Apple Watch satisfaction is unprecedented at 97%; beats original iPhone and iPad – July 20, 2015
Non-techies love their Apple Watches even more than tech users – July 20, 2015
Apple Watch is Apple’s most successful product debut ever – June 1, 2015
The fact that Fitbit devices are focused on doing only one or two thing really well fits in with Jobs’ philosophy of product design. If Fitbit can maintain its price point on the elasticity of demand curve, there’s no reason for them to fear Apple, which will happily take the higher margin parts of the curve.
Fitbit’s focus on fitness is what makes their products so desirable to so many.
Just whitelisted MDN after the forced notice. LOL that Fitbit is being advertised here while MDN slams it. Give me an option to send you money MDN instead of seeing these stupid ads.
Okay Apple, destroy Fitbit if you must, but make sure you keep the ability for false rape allegations by women to be disavowed with factual activity readouts and spare the innocent man!
http://fusion.net/story/158292/fitbit-data-just-undermined-a-womans-rape-claim/
Dude, what the crap? Did you just scan the headline and decide to post a stupid completely unrelated to the actual article reply?
Apple is NOT out to ‘destroy’ fitbit. Go back, take a deep breath, keep calm and read the MDN summary, if not the entire article.
As mentioned, if people using fitbit start to want more features/ capability, Apple is the best alternative. The biggest problem for both fitbit and Apple is the lack of a decent app to track sleep.