“Shares of Fitbit were soaring, up 6.25% to $40.62 in late morning trading Wednesday, adding to gains from the prior session after analysts at RBC Capital Markets issued a positive note on the newly public company Tuesday morning,” Kurumi Fukushima reports for TheStreet.
“On CNBC’s Mad Money show Tuesday night, TheStreet’s Jim Cramer, Portfolio Manager of the Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio said the rally of his favorite Fitbit stock was spurred by the RBC Capital note saying revenue will grow by 83% this year,” Fukushima reports. “Cramer added that Apple is not a competitor to Fitbit.”
Fukushima reports, “‘Apple is not in the same business. A Fitbit costs a fraction of the Apple Watch,’ he said.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Except that Apple Watch users are significantly less likely to buy a Fitbit.
I don’t have a fit bit… Maybe if it was $20.
Why would I ever buy a Fitbit when I have an Apple Watch? Answer: I won’t. Nearly every Apple Watch owner is eliminated from ever considering a Fitbit.
Exactly right.
Why buy a band that does one thing when you can buy a smart watch that will be able to do almost anything?
Gotta be crazy imho.
Fitbit is a personal fitness device. Like the iPod, for example, it is a focused device dedicated to a particular function, and it performs that function efficiently and effectively.
The Apple Watch has much broader functionality. To continue the analogy started above, the Apple Watch is to the Fitbit as the iPhone is to the iPod. The Apple Watch and the iPhone are internet and communication devices capable of running apps. That makes them very flexible and capable, but the flip side is that they do not tend to perform any particular function as well as a highly focused and dedicated device.
If you want a smaller and lighter fitness device with long battery life then you may want a Fitbit. No worries – buy what you need. However, when someone already owns a more general purpose integrated device that also does specific functions sufficiently well, then the tendency is for people to prefer the single, integrated device despite any compromises that might be involved. That is why iPod sales have dropped since 2007 – the iPhone (and, to a much lesser extent, the iPad) provide the iPod function sufficiently well.
When I wrote “…the iPhone (and, to a much lesser extent, the iPad) provide the iPod function sufficiently well,” I meant that the iPhone is the key driver in terms of numbers of devices. Hundreds of millions of people now own iPhones and have no need for an iPod.
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Had a fitbit. the band rotted in less than 6 months. It is a piece of rubber with a black insert with digital dots that you must interpret. Fitbit was cool for about 2 weeks…maybe. It is like having an app on the apple watch that requires extra band. Definitely not a competitor to Watch. We saw this dance with so called music players in the early iPod days. As with most early iPod competitors, Fitbit will soon become referred to as beleaguered Fitbit.
Last night on the Daily Show, guest Jon Hamm, promoting his new film Minions, was wearing his WATCH Edition and received and replied to an iMessage while being interviewed by Jon Stewart. It was so cool. Took him seconds to read and reply to the text on his wrist.⌚️😜
Barely interrupted the flow of the conversation at all. Stewart briefly asked Hamm if that was a one of those things which Hamm acknowledged it was without mentioning it was an WATCH EDITION model. You can easily see the gold body in the video. That little WATCH moment was so indicative of how cool WATCHes are.
A Fitbit is analogous to an iPod Shuffle. It’s designed to do one thing well.
The problem is that a Fitbit isn’t much smaller and still occupies space on your wrist. I often use my iPod Shuffle when running or going to the gym despite numerous experiments with using an armband with my iPhone 6 and prior models. And that’s where Fitbit will lose. I’m happy to own an iPod Shuffle and an iPhone, but there’s no reason to own a Fitbit and an Apple Watch.
I may get a Fitbit to monitor my sleep. Only $100 and generally I want to charge the apple watch overnight.
Apple Watch has increased public awareness of and interest in fitness tracking wearables. Those who can’t get an Apple Watch yet, or don’t want the first generation, are buying a Fitbit to see how they like wearing a fitness tracker on their wrists. Soon, they’ll upgrade to a real smartwatch, and they’ll never go back to Fitbit.
The space Fitbit occupies is similar to the space occupied by the Flip flash-based video camera in 2007. And we all know how that ended up for the Flip.
Screw Apple Watch!!! Why the hell won’t Apple commit to Aperture again after the world-wide uproar over its demise? Apple is rapidly heading down the path to consumer-driven mediocrity, abandoning its longstanding and loyal customers along the way. Remember how that went last time Apple, except this time there is no Steve Jobs to come riding to your rescue.