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
#2I 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.
Re: Fitbit will lay off 110 employees amid challenges in wearable market
#3What is the most programmable wearable?
I'd love to have access to my watches display, sensor, and communications features.
Re: Fitbit will lay off 110 employees amid challenges in wearable market
#4Well, that was fun while it lasted.
Re: Fitbit will lay off 110 employees amid challenges in wearable market
#5So buying Pebble was nothing but their previous try at surviving in a challenging wearable market? It's really difficult to wrap my head around these two recent moves in a way that makes sense.
Re: Fitbit will lay off 110 employees amid challenges in wearable market
#6I 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!
Re: Fitbit will lay off 110 employees amid challenges in wearable market
#7I am quite curious to see what will happen with Android Wear devices and Apple Watch, as the weareable hype is kinda declining (and once it was "the next big thing").
Re: Fitbit will lay off 110 employees amid challenges in wearable market
#8So long, farewell! Don't let the door hit you on the butt.
Fitbit totally killed itself for me when it decided to launch its own ecosystem without integrating itself into HealthKit and Google Fit. I understand that they thought they were creating an ecosystem for their users but by choosing to ignore the platforms that the major OS manufacturers had created, they essentially locked everyone out of integration with non-Fitbit devices. I bought a Fitbit Aria scale and a Fitbit device and was furious when I found out that I couldn't integrate that data with MyFitnessPal or RunKeeper or Strava without buying another app to allow syncing to the Fitbit website.
Now I have an Apple Watch and we traded our scale for a Withings scale that works with HealthKit and Google Fit and everyone in the family is happy whether they're on Android or iOS. Walled gardens are fine but not if they're locked, walled gardens.
Re: Fitbit will lay off 110 employees amid challenges in wearable market
#9So buying Pebble was nothing but their previous try at surviving in a challenging wearable market? It's really difficult to wrap my head around these two recent moves in a way that makes sense.
I think its pretty easy, Pebble adds some additional "watch" market, and if you lay off the people you've added more customers without adding a lot of additional cost.
Long before it was 'trendy' the monitoring your hearbeat etc market was there for serious athletes. That is, and continues to be a niche market. So there are too many players chasing too few customers who aren't going to upgrade their equipment every year and aren't willing to pay a monthly service charge for reading that equipment so the market seems quite a bit smaller than it once appeared.
Re: Fitbit will lay off 110 employees amid challenges in wearable market
#10I am quite curious to see what will happen with Android Wear devices and Apple Watch, as the weareable hype is kinda declining (and once it was "the next big thing").
My impression is that Fitbit is seeing a lot of pressure from devices like the Apple Watch. Though I've encountered people who still like and use a Fitbit even after purchasing an Apple Watch, I can see that declining in the future. I think wrist devices like the Apple Watch and similar Android devices are here to stay, especially as they get smaller, have added features, and the UX improves.