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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

#111

Post by CN7R »

dkonofalski wrote: post #88
CN7R wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can see why there's no direct integration -- isn't it better for a company to ask permission for your data before using it? Like how if you want to sign up for a website through Facebook or Google, they ask first.

That's precisely how HealthKit and Google Fit work, though. You have to allow them access to the app data. The thing with the Fitbit data, though, is that there is no option to even access the data. It doesn't share it at all and doesn't have an option to share it. You either use the Fitbit website or you don't get to see your data. Some apps have hacked work arounds to get the basic data by scraping web data but it'…

Ah I get what you're saying. So FitBit doesn't allow other sites to access your data stored. What the heck, I feel like that would damage their utility.

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

#112

Post by dkonofalski »

CN7R wrote: post #111
dkonofalski wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's precisely how HealthKit and Google Fit work, though. You have to allow them access to the app data. The thing with the Fitbit data, though, is that there is no option to even access the data. It doesn't share it at all and doesn't have an option to share it. You either use the Fitbit website or you don't get to see your data. Some apps have hacked work arounds to get the basic data by scraping web data but it'…

Ah I get what you're saying. So FitBit doesn't allow other sites to access your data stored. What the heck, I feel like that would damage their utility.

Yeah, and that's what everyone is complaining about and what I think is the single biggest thing to kill the Fitbit. They wanted to lock people in to their ecosystem so that people would want to buy only Fitbit products to have them all work together but, instead, people tended to start with a Fitbit and then move on to other products that actually worked together with the other products they already bought or planned to buy.

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

#113

Post by nindalf »

okreallywtf wrote: post #94
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…

My fitbit charge HR stopped syncing and I could no longer update the firmware. It became useless so I had to dump it on the shelf and forget about it.

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

#115

Post by CydeWeys »

breck wrote: post #36
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…

But this is endemic to the industry. I still caution fitness band buyers that they should consider themselves early adopters who should expect some troubles while the quality evolves. I owned a Microsoft Band 1 and Microsoft Band 2 since the day they came out. My Band 1 broke twice in two different ways, and my Band 2 died 3 times. Microsoft replaced them free of charge every time, which was great. So in 2 years with…

> I still caution fitness band buyers that they should consider themselves early adopters who should expect some troubles while the quality evolves.

I don't buy this. Many, many millions of fitness brands have been sold, for combined billions of dollars, over a good number of years. We are not on the startup upswing anymore. I'm not quite expecting perfection yet, but I am expecting them to not outright suck. The construction methods are clearly inferior -- the damn things just fall apart because they are glued, rather than using fasteners. They are making low quality, designed-for-obsolescence junk. Many of the flaws, like coming up with a good band that attaches around your wrist and doesn't break, were solved in wristwatches over a hundred years ago.

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

#116

Post by CydeWeys »

nradov wrote: post #75
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…

Perhaps the reason people commenting here have had so many problems with Fitbit devices is that they actually use them. From what I've seen, Fitbit's target market is primarily overweight people who don't really exercise much and leave them on the shelf. Garmin fitness trackers have much higher build quality and seem to have a fairly good reputation among athletes. But they cost several times more than a Fitbit.

I have a Garmin Forerunner 10 which I haven't had any real problems with yet. I will say this about it, that makes me trust it infinitely more than any Fitbit I've ever had: It's built like a watch. A cheaper digital watch with a rubber band and plastic screen, granted, but still a watch nonetheless. And when you're not using it as a GPS tracker, it just functions as a normal digital wristwatch.

How we managed to go from watches, which are a solved problem and just work, to shitty fitness trackers that break in an embarrassing number of stupid ways, I'll never know. All you had to do was take a normal running watch and add sensors to it. But nope. Instead we got all these inferior bands that break constantly because they're literally glued together. My Garmin, meanwhile, is held together with four tiny metal Torx screws. The difference in quality, and how many corners are cut on fitness bands, is so immediately obvious that it just screams out at you.

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

#117

Post by CydeWeys »

drewg123 wrote: post #34
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 this is a problem with wearables in general. All in all, I've never seen a wearable last more than 9-10 months. I'm not that rough on them either. My MS Band 1 lasted ~8 months before it suddenly died. MS replaced it. I then borrowed a friend's Band2 which had already been replaced 4 times. It died twice for me. MS replaced it once, then issued a refund check when they ran out of stock. And then there is the…

> I think this is a problem with wearables in general. All in all, I've never seen a wearable last more than 9-10 months.

Why don't watches count as wearables though? I've literally never had a watch break on me in my life, except for a cheap mechanical watch (you get what you pay for). If these things were just built like digital watches they'd be fine.

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

#118

Post by CydeWeys »

rconti wrote: post #106
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…

My charge HR's body is screwed together with 4 small torx screws. I don't see how the charging plug could pull any glued plastic apart. That said, I did have an issue with the band just above the screen starting to delaminate. Heard they'd send me a new one so I made a claim and got a new one. For $150, does about what I'd expect, and is about as durable as I'd expect.

Look at this image: https://cdn3.pcadvisor.co.uk/cmsdata/reviews/3585633/fitbit-...

See the black band that wraps around the charging port? There's no screws in it. It's simply glued on. The charging cable uses metal prongs to attach into that port, and over time, it will eventually defeat the glue and pull the black band off the Fitbit entirely. Then you can no longer attach the cable to charge it. I've heard of lots of other people who've experienced this same problem. It's a bad design flaw.

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

#119

Post by CydeWeys »

vpribish wrote: post #64
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 went through 3 charges in 13 months - two had the band delaminate and split, one bricked during a firmware upgrade. Warranty replacement was fine in that first 12 months, just a week or two to get the replacement. The final one they just offered a discount on a new purchase. At this rate it's more like you are leasing their band a year at a time. I'm done.

I had one brick during a firmware upgrade too. It wasn't even a firmware upgrade I started! It just started upgrading automatically and then died, for who knows what reason. It could've been as simple as it has no error recovery whatsoever and I moved my phone away from the band during the process (because I didn't know it was even happening).

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

#120

Post by CydeWeys »

CN7R wrote: post #56
theli0nheart wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Been using Fitbit devices since 2010, and using a Charge HR since it came out. Never had a problem like OP's.

I've had mine for more than a year and a half -- my charge hr hasn't failed yet. But my cousins' have, which leads me to wonder what if the issue is user-caused.

I wasn't rough on it. I wore it 24/7, except in showers/water and when charging it. I don't tend to break anything else in my normal life; I'm not one of those people who's rough on things. I just had repeated Fitbit failures.
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