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posted by martyb on Wednesday November 04 2015, @10:18PM   Printer-friendly
from the for-geeks-they-are-creating-fitbytes dept.

Fitbit, makers of the eponymous fitness tracking wearable device, is seeing fattening revenues:

Fitbit the maker of wearable activity monitors, tripled its third quarter sales - capitalising on the popularity of wearable fitness technology. The company brought in $409.3m (£265.5m) in the third quarter compared to $152.9m in the same period the year before. Fitbit sold 4.8 million devices between July and September compared with 2.3 million in the third quarter of 2014.

Fitbit's CEO James Park has dismissed the impact of the Apple Watch:

On a conference call with investors, Park said that the rollout of other smart watches, which often come with a step-tracker similar to Fitbit's main function, did not have impact on the company's growth. When asked about Apple's new watch specifically, he said it had "no material impact". He added that Apple and Fitbit cater to "two very different segments in the market" in terms of price point and use. The price range for Fitbit devices, most often worn as a wristband, is $60 to $250. Apple Watch starts at $349 and can cost more than $1,000.

[...] Prior to the company's IPO, Park told CNBC that the company can remain competitive, despite the new players such as Apple Watch. "There's over $200bn of consumer spending on health and fitness. This is a massive market. There's room for more than one dominant player," he said. "The brand Fitbit is really synonymous with health and fitness tracking, so we feel that we have really significant competitive differentiators in the market."

Fitbit sued Jawbone, another company making fitness trackers, in September. Jawbone has filed a countersuit, claiming that Fitbit is "willfully misusing its patents as part of its efforts to protect its market power".

[We ran the story Wearable Tech Market To Treble In Next Five Years just a few days ago. -Ed.]


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  • (Score: 2) by Daiv on Thursday November 05 2015, @04:00PM

    by Daiv (3940) on Thursday November 05 2015, @04:00PM (#258907)

    If I hadn't gotten the Surge at a *huge* discount, I would have gotten the MS Band. My father has one and I'm rather impressed with that as well. That's why I think Surge 2 will likely fulfill the originals shortcomings. Fitbit has to see MS's success in designing the Band and I think Band 2 is going to raise the stakes.

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