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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

#21

Post by dkonofalski »

dragonwriter wrote: post #18
dkonofalski wrote: post #8

So 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 no…

> Fitbit totally killed itself for me when it decided to launch its own ecosystem without integrating itself into HealthKit and Google Fit. They launched their own ecosystem before both HealthKit and Google Fit existed; there was nothing for them to integrate with.

While that may be true, Fitbit was one of the launch partners for HealthKit and debuted their web interface at the Apple Keynote where HealthKit was first shown. Google had info online that Fitbit was working with them from the start to include integrations. They pulled out of both after they had already had a functional integration.

Edit: Fitbit launched their web integration in 2012 and there are mentions of a partnership from both Google and Apple from the same year. It doesn't sound like your statement is as truthful as you may think.

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

#22

Post by dkonofalski »

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #17
dkonofalski wrote: post #8

So 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 no…

I have an aria and it syncs with my fitness pal just fine.

Yes, but it doesn't sync with HealthKit/Google Fit directly. You have to go through MyFitnessPal and login to your Fitbit account. You're two steps removed from direct integration and sharing with any other apps on your device.

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

#23

Post by diego_moita »

Wearables only have 2 "killer applications", so far: notifications and fitness. To broaden their appeal they need to find others. I don't think that will happen this year.

The next likely killer application for wearables is probably automation, authentication and interaction with other devices. However the problem in this area is that the standards are too fragmented (AllJoyn, Homekit, Google's Brillo, etc) and the devices didn't reach critical mass, yet.

But you can be sure wearable devices won't fade away.

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

#25

Post by shanemhansen »

I'm surprised. It seems like for the last several months I've been noticing fitbits on the wrist of several prominent people.

Maybe their product is just too simple and does it's job too well. Judging by trends in the market, people won't be satisfied until their watches have about 8h of battery life and are privy to all the 0-days of android.

Ignore my grumbling, I'm just an old fossil who wants phones to at least be phones and watches to at least be watches. Call quality on my phone seems to drop every year, and my wife's $500 smart watch barfs on syncing her music library.

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

#26

Post by Periodic »

Nine months ago I had an offer to join Fitbit's engineering team. When I first started interviewing I didn't even realize the company had gone public a six months before. I guess I missed the news.

Looking at the stock price and talking a little with the employees, it was hard to get excited. It had gone from an initial surge of $47/share to $14/share. It looked like an overeager IPO to raise funds for a company that really hadn't quite figured out its market yet. We've seen them many times, but I'm not yet sure what the commonality is. Not having a lasting market? Not having the growth potential?

Most people at the company had an optimistic outlook, but it would be hard to work there and do recruiting otherwise.

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

#27

Post by Analemma_ »

diego_moita wrote: post #23

Wearables only have 2 "killer applications", so far: notifications and fitness. To broaden their appeal they need to find others. I don't think that will happen this year. The next likely killer application for wearables is probably automation, authentication and interaction with other devices. However the problem in this area is that the standards are too fragmented (AllJoyn, Homekit, Google's Brillo, etc) and the d…

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.

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

#28

Post by CydeWeys »

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, failed for the third time, and it's out of that one year warranty.

To give you an idea of how bad the Charge HR is, its charging plug attaches with metal prongs, but it plugs into a slim plastic housing that is only glued to the rest of the device. The obvious result is that the plastic housing eventually gets pulled off with the plug. That's how two of my three Charge HRs have died. It'd be like if your laptop were ruined within four months because the power cable pulled off an essential piece of the laptop housing rather than detaching cleanly, and now it won't attach in order to charge. The third Charge HR bricked itself during an unprompted firmware update, which started randomly and then I guess got interrupted midway through when I moved my phone too far from the device. It never recovered.

I don't know what the hell they're optimizing for over at Fitbit HQ, but they're trying to sell $10 throw-away quality devices for >$100. It's outrageous. I actively discourage everyone I know from ever buying anything from them, and many other people I know have also completely sworn them off for the same reason. Their product just sucks.

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

#29

Post by diego_moita »

Analemma_ wrote: post #27
diego_moita wrote: post #23

Wearables only have 2 "killer applications", so far: notifications and fitness. To broaden their appeal they need to find others. I don't think that will happen this year. The next likely killer application for wearables is probably automation, authentication and interaction with other devices. However the problem in this area is that the standards are too fragmented (AllJoyn, Homekit, Google's Brillo, etc) and the d…

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.

> authentication to some extent

The "to some extent" part is precisely a big part of my point when I mention fragmented standards and absence of critical mass. An incomplete killer application is not really "killer".

Other devices (e.g: Android wear with smart-lock and Google Pay) also suffer from the "to some extent" illness.

But you made a very good point about FitBit not being able to replicate. Their devices are too focused on health and notification. They don't even have the hardware to go beyond that.

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

#30

Post by CydeWeys »

phhlho wrote: post #24

After 3 Fitbit Charge HRs dying on me within a year, I've left FitBit and moved on to Garmin. It's a shame because my Flex was solid for multiple years.

I've had the exact same problem both with the Flex and then with the Charge HR. Their hardware quality is just terrible, especially given that they're expected you to pay >$100 on their devices! I now go out of my way to actively dis-recommend Fitbit (as I've done in this comments thread).
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