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Fitbit will lay off 110 employees amid challenges in wearable market

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Re: Fitbit will lay off 110 employees amid challenges in wearable market

#91

Post by ben1040 »

CydeWeys wrote: post #28

I've said it before and I'll say it again: A big part of Fitbit's problem is the poor hardware quality of their products, especially considering the high price. A lot of people, me included, will never buy another Fitbit after having been burned. Their warranty only lasts one year, yet I've had to replace both Fitbit devices I've had twice within that one year. I'm now Fitbit-less because the latest, a Charge HR, fai…

>A lot of people, me included, will never buy another Fitbit after having been burned

In my case, getting burned was quite literal. I had a Fitbit Force and was one of the thousands who wound up getting a chemical burn on my wrist from wearing the device. It took about six weeks for it to subside.

Fitbit's response was sub-par. They finally did recall all the devices, but it took them way too long to admit a problem existed and to act on it. They initially dismissed the whole thing as potential sensitivity to metal, when clearly something different was going on.

A TV station spent a year filing FOIA requests with the CPSC, etc trying to chase down what happened. The best they could come up with was that perhaps trapped sweat in the charge port could get converted to sodium hydroxide when you plug in the charger, and that would imply that you got a lye burn on your arm.

http://abc13.com/technology/possible-cause-of-fitbit-rashes-...

The burn that I had was definitely localized right to where the charge port would contact my wrist.

Re: Fitbit will lay off 110 employees amid challenges in wearable market

#92

Post by sophacles »

johnward wrote: post #74
thearn4 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yikes, I just picked up a FB Charge 2. I like it so far. Disappointing to hear that it may fail prematurely.

So far the Charge 2 is holding up well for me. I had problems with the Charge HR. Keeping my fingers crossed. Though I did manage to scratch the screen not a week after buying it. The only other issue is that I'm starting to realize that step tracking isn't really that valuable. At least I get some benefit from heart rate and sleep.

Most of the metrics with my Charge and now Charge 2 are inaccurate for any purpose other than trending info. Same with the Aria scale for Body fat %. They are not horribly inaccurate, just not terribly accurate. They are at least consistent however, and the graphs are useful to make sure my exercise, weight, etc are trending right. For me, that's enough - I want to be fit and healthy, I'm not trying to be highly tuned and in peak fitness. Those who are would probably want to look at other products.

Re: Fitbit will lay off 110 employees amid challenges in wearable market

#93

Post by Analemma_ »

overgryphon wrote: post #80
Analemma_ wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that more a Windows problem? An OS should never crash entirely because a device was plugged in. Fitbit probably should've caught that in testing though.

Device drivers run in kernel mode and can bugcheck the machine. Microsoft can certainly provide tooling and help device driver writers write reliable drivers, but the device is still responsible for it's driver.

My understanding is that Windows supports user-mode drivers and Microsoft strongly encourages not writing kernel-mode drivers unless absolutely necessary. If Fitbit did that anyway though then it's definitely their fault.

Re: Fitbit will lay off 110 employees amid challenges in wearable market

#94

Post by okreallywtf »

CydeWeys wrote: post #28

I've said it before and I'll say it again: A big part of Fitbit's problem is the poor hardware quality of their products, especially considering the high price. A lot of people, me included, will never buy another Fitbit after having been burned. Their warranty only lasts one year, yet I've had to replace both Fitbit devices I've had twice within that one year. I'm now Fitbit-less because the latest, a Charge HR, fai…

I think its worth pointing out that when most people say "hardware" when talking about the fitbit, we're talking about the band, charge port etc and not the electronics (which is usually what I'm talking about when I use the word "hardware").

I think we've all had the same experience with the band/casing (personally mine haven't lasted long enough to have issues with the charge-port. Currently mine is wrapped up with tinfoil tape which is doing a good job of keeping my 2nd warrenty charge-HR alive). As far as the electronics hardware I don't actually have much of an issue. Some recent update required location for syncing but after I read into it it sounded like it was actually a google/android issue, not fitbit.

I won't go as far as you to decry fitbit but they waited far too long and lost far to much goodwill on an issue as simple (seemingly) as the freaking band.

Re: Fitbit will lay off 110 employees amid challenges in wearable market

#95

Post by [deleted] »

trendia wrote: post #14
sremani wrote: post #6

I have bought my share of fitbit, Band etc. The only way to make wearables tolerable is making them less smart and more accurate. Accurately measure my heart rate and stop bugging me about a stupid text!

The new Charge costs more than the old one and doesn't have a GPS. Now I have to run with my phone on me to get accurate location data. They're regressing.

[deleted]

Re: Fitbit will lay off 110 employees amid challenges in wearable market

#96

Post by Quppa »

trendia wrote: post #14
sremani wrote: post #6

I have bought my share of fitbit, Band etc. The only way to make wearables tolerable is making them less smart and more accurate. Accurately measure my heart rate and stop bugging me about a stupid text!

The new Charge costs more than the old one and doesn't have a GPS. Now I have to run with my phone on me to get accurate location data. They're regressing.

Only the Fitbit Surge has built-in GPS (the first generation Charge and Charge HR didn't).

The Charge 2 does cost more at retail presently, however.

Re: Fitbit will lay off 110 employees amid challenges in wearable market

#97

Post by thearn4 »

sophacles wrote: post #92
johnward wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So far the Charge 2 is holding up well for me. I had problems with the Charge HR. Keeping my fingers crossed. Though I did manage to scratch the screen not a week after buying it. The only other issue is that I'm starting to realize that step tracking isn't really that valuable. At least I get some benefit from heart rate and sleep.

Most of the metrics with my Charge and now Charge 2 are inaccurate for any purpose other than trending info. Same with the Aria scale for Body fat %. They are not horribly inaccurate, just not terribly accurate. They are at least consistent however, and the graphs are useful to make sure my exercise, weight, etc are trending right. For me, that's enough - I want to be fit and healthy, I'm not trying to be highly tune…

I can see that, and it does match my expectations at least. It somewhat gamifies the process of me getting up from my desk every so often to walk around the lab complex.

Re: Fitbit will lay off 110 employees amid challenges in wearable market

#98

Post by [deleted] »

teach wrote: post #40
throwaway_374 wrote: post #2

I always thought this was simply nothing more than an overpriced step counter and nothing changed the perception for me - if anything, the glorified marketing felt quite deceptive. Strangely, on the contrary, I find myself addicted to the "step counter" on my Galaxy S6 everytime I go for a run.

I have a Fitbit for exactly two reasons: sleep tracking and heart rate. The step counter is interesting , but I wouldn't have bought a device just for that.

[deleted]

Re: Fitbit will lay off 110 employees amid challenges in wearable market

#99

Post by alexfoo »

TarpitCarnivore wrote: post #45
sremani wrote: post #6

I have bought my share of fitbit, Band etc. The only way to make wearables tolerable is making them less smart and more accurate. Accurately measure my heart rate and stop bugging me about a stupid text!

This is why I've been eyeing a Garmin Vivoactive HR. I know people slam Garmin because they feel behind but if there is one thing they know it's accuracy. There's a reason they're the goto brand for cyclists, runners and triathletes. It's because they work reliably.

> There's a reason they're the goto brand for cyclists, runners and triathletes. It's because they work reliably.

Garmins are buggy though, but once you get used to working around the most common bugs they are quite reliable.

I think Garmin just had the best devices in the early days, and now rely more upon brand loyalty (myself included) than technical advances. Touch bezels in the Forerunner range deserve a special place in design hell though.

(Granted I'm not the average Garmin user as I'm more interested in ultra-distance.)

Re: Fitbit will lay off 110 employees amid challenges in wearable market

#100

Post by kejaed »

stcredzero wrote: post #89
Analemma_ wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Apple Watch can do authentication to some extent: Authy has an Apple Watch app, and there's Apple Pay. This is the kind of stuff I don't think Fitbit can easily duplicate, which is why I think they're going to struggle in the future.

The Apple Watch can do authentication to some extent: Authy has an Apple Watch app, and there's Apple Pay. I'd love it if I could securely store all of my passwords on an Apple Watch, which would require my fingerprint to unlock. But only if there was Bluetooth integration for macOS and USB devices for integration with random computers.

1Password has an Apple Watch app, and you can choose the passwords you want to have on your watch. With a PIN on the watch that locks it when taken off one's wrist, I'm pretty happy with that sort of security.

Another step would be a extra 1Password pin, of some other kind of something you know code. A 4 pad touch screen that could use a combination of short press, long press, force-touch press as a combination would be pretty cool, come to think of it.

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