“If you’re in the market for a Fitbit device and you’re shopping at the Apple Store, you’ll probably have to shop elsewhere to purchase the fitness tracker,” Zac Hall reports for 9to5Mac.
“Apple has today removed the Fitbit Flex and other Fitbit products from its online store following low inventory over the past week,” Hall reports. “While its unclear why Apple is no longer selling Fitbit products through its retail channels, on the surface the move is similar to Apple’s decision to discontinue selling Bose headphones and speakers at its retail and online stores.”
“While the Bose move is highly suspected to be related to Apple’s purchase of Beats Electronics earlier this year, Apple could have dropped Fitbit for any number of reasons including lack of support for iOS 8’s HealthKit feature and direct competition from Apple’s upcoming Watch which includes fitness and health tracking features,” Hall reports. “Fitbit has publicly shared that it has no plans to integrate with Apple’s HealthKit tool which allows apps to share information with Apple’s new Health app on iOS 8.”
Read more in the full article here.
I love this company, but sometimes I wonder if they are really sending the right message by dropping products simply because someone else has another vision.
Fitbit product, and their accompanying Apps have been a big part of the App eco system and they don’t ‘have’ to participate in HealthKit, though I am certain at some point they will, as customers will likely press them to.
Maybe this is all unrelated to the HealthKit thing, but I hope not.
The Apple Store always has been, and should continue to be all about great products vetted by Apple’s people. It shouldn’t be about whether or not a company willing participates in everything Apple does.
Well said makemineamac i totally agree with you.
You aren’t the guy at Apple who has to deal with angry customers who bought something at an Apple Store and then discovered that it doesn’t interface with any of their Apple software or devices. Apple is about seamless integration, not about selling random shiny stuff. People expect a high level of synergy, and if they don’t get it, they’re going to blame the people who sold it to them, not the manufacturer.
TxUser, you clearly aren’t aware that Fitbit continues to integrate seamlessly with every current device Apple makes including iPhones, iPads, and Macs. They have native Apps for all current devices. The only thing they are not participating in currently is HealthKit.
They are clearly struggling with trying to keep their own data theirs which is understandable.
They have been one of the early pioneers in making health tracking exciting for people. Taking their otherwise extremely popular products out of the Apple stores seems a bit immature.
It is still possible this is all unrelated.
makemineamac, I completely agree with you that FitBit doesn’t “have” to integrate its trackers and app data with the Health app. At the same time Apple doesn’t “have” to sell FitBit’s hardware. Right now, FitBit has 77 pages, filled with over 1,900 comments in its Feature Requests forum, requesting Health app integration and expressing frustration with FitBit for the platitudes its moderator spouts when she comes on every now and again (this doesn’t even count all of the activity over on FitBit’s Facebook page on this issue). If FitBit can’t even see fit (pun intended) to give a yes or no answer on this issue to its loyal customers, I have no sympathy for them and fully support Apple’s actions on this. Just like FitBit doesn’t have to integrate with Health, I don’t have to replace my Force with one of its new trackers and can head over to Jawbone, Garmin, Withings . . . and get what I want.
I have no idea if the Healthkit thing is what’s driving this (no one except Apple and FitBit do), but while I agree Apple Stores should be about great products, part of what makes a great Apple related product, is the way it works with Apple hardware and within Apple’s ecosystem. FitBit, so far doesn’t work as well as other options (still in the Store) at this point.
Some great points arybaryba, and those requests are what I was referring to, customers will eventually send them in the right direction.
Not every single possible App yet is HealthKit-enabled. The fact that Fitbit hasn’t seen the light yet shouldn’t be enough of a reason to remove their products from the store, that’s all I am saying.
As mentioned in a previous reply the entire Fitbit line is tightly integrated into the ecosystem apart from HealthKit sharing. I’m pretty certain that not every device sold in the store, that has the capability, is HealthKit-capable yet, for various reasons.
Tons of FitBit stuff at Apple Store in St. Louis yesterday.
Keyword is yesterday. It is very easy to take something off the shelf.
Fitbit is actually a privacy nightmare, your data goes to the Fitbit cloud where it is shared with a number of “trusted” partners. Apple does well to distance themselves from it.