“James Park is on a mission to make you fitter, faster, stronger and more productive. His company Fitbit has put its activity trackers on millions of wrists in the nine years since it was founded,” James Titcomb reports for The Telegraph. “But Park, who co-founded Fitbit and led it to one of 2015’s biggest technology IPOs, believes that wearable technology is only at the cusp of its potential.”
“On its first day as a listed company, shares surged 20pc, valuing the company at $4.1bn and valuing Park’s stake at $600m. The months since then, however, have not been so kind. Shares have lost over half of their value since Fitbit’s IPO, amid a widespread tech malaise,” Titcomb reports. “One event that weathered the company’s share price was January’s unveiling of the Fitbit Blaze, a fitness-focused smartwatch, which added more advanced features such as the ability to read text messages and control a smartphone’s music.”
“Park is adamant that the Blaze – two thirds the price of Apple’s smartwatch and with a longer battery life – can compete, and says the Apple Watch, which boasts thousands of different applications, can be overcomplicated,” Titcomb reports. “‘I think it’s a great product and Apple’s a great company, but it’s a product that probably does too much,’ Park says.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Health is the key. And Apple has all of the pieces, including the monetary might and the corporate will, to own health. See HealthKit, ResearchKit, CareKit. See Apple’s vast ecosystem. FitBit has none of the pieces. FitBit’s R&D expenditures ($27.9m in 2013, $54.2m in 2014, and $150m last year) are laughable. FitBit is the Palm of wearables.
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