Roger Fingas
Fitbit devices remain both the most used and most wanted fitness trackers, but Apple is in a position to make gains with the Apple Watch, especially as a huge number of consumers plan to buy a wearable device in the near future, according to a U.S. consumer survey published on Friday.
The survey was conducted by investment firm Robert W. Baird & Co., which polled 5,000 people in May. 8.4 percent of people said they owned a Fitbit product, while 3.6 percent said they had something from Garmin, and 2.4 percent owned a Jawbone. Only approximately 20 percent of people said they had any kind of fitness tracker.
Almost a quarter people said they intended to buy a fitness band though, a jump from 14 percent in Baird's December figures. In May 10.6 percent of people said they intended to buy a Fitbit, while 5.9 percent claimed they wanted an Apple Watch. For Jawbone and Garmin devices, respective numbers were 3.6 and 3.1 percent.
Measured purchase intent shifted when only examining people who already owned a tracker. 16.5 percent said they wanted a Fitbit — 13 percent chose the Apple Watch, 9.8 percent picked Garmin, and 7.1 percent said they were looking at a Jawbone.
The Apple Watch, launched just last month, is not strictly a fitness tracker. It can only record motion and heart rate, whereas dedicated trackers can sometimes monitor data like sleep patterns, perspiration, and/or GPS location. The Watch can make use of GPS data, but only by pulling it from a nearby iPhone.
Some Watch owners are complaining that this week's v1.0.1 update has broken heart rate tracking, making it sporadic outside of Workout mode. Users may have to force a reading by checking the heart rate Glance.
Charles Martin
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Malcolm Owen
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21 Comments
I have a hard time using Fitbit because they lock your data to their apps. Why can't I natively and automatically export to healthkit? Their app has horrid data visuals as well.
Fitbit's not going anywhere anytime soon. There's a massive fitness push in my company right now, and everyone is on a Fitbit craze. For $100, people have all they need to track fitness. Everyone I know has a Fitbit at work, and I've yet to see one ?Watch, or overhear anybody talking about them -- and almost all of them use an iPhone. Today in fact, everyone was getting excited about how they can receive notifications on their Fitbits while discussing the latest "fitness challenge".
[quote name="Mac_128" url="/t/186390/fitbit-leads-in-fitness-tracker-popularity-but-apple-watch-poised-to-gain-ground#post_2726304"]Everyone I know has a Fitbit at work, and I've yet to see one ?Watch, or overhear anybody talking about them[/quote] They seem to be selling quite a lot of units: http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/7/8569017/fitbit-ipo-fit-profit https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1447599/000119312515176980/d875679ds1.htm They've sold over 20m units in total since 2011 with 3.9m in the latest quarter and have an active userbase of 9.5m. That's 20x more than the Pebble has sold. I wouldn't expect many people to have both a Fitbit and an Apple Watch. The millions of people buying Apple Watches will likely see a similar lack of Fitbits. They're all just accessories and you're typically only going to see about 1 in 10 people with smartphones with any particular wearable.
[quote name="Mac_128" url="/t/186390/fitbit-leads-in-fitness-tracker-popularity-but-apple-watch-poised-to-gain-ground#post_2726304"]Fitbit's not going anywhere anytime soon. There's a massive fitness push in my company right now, and everyone is on a Fitbit craze. For $100, people have all they need to track fitness. Everyone I know has a Fitbit at work, and I've yet to see one ?Watch, or overhear anybody talking about them -- and almost all of them use an iPhone. Today in fact, everyone was getting excited about how they can receive notifications on their Fitbits while discussing the latest "fitness challenge". [/quote] In order for you to be at all believable, given your posting history on the Watch, you should tell us what sort of company you work for, and something about the demographics. Otherwise, I have to toss your post in the Benjamin Frost file. Empty FUD.
[quote name="Flaneur" url="/t/186390/fitbit-leads-in-fitness-tracker-popularity-but-apple-watch-poised-to-gain-ground#post_2726363"]In order for you to be at all believable, given your posting history on the Watch, you should tell us what sort of company you work for, and something about the demographics. Otherwise, I have to toss your post in the Benjamin Frost file. Empty FUD.[/quote] Individual experiences can't be scaled up to an entire market either way. Back when people wanted a big phone, people would say 'everybody I know has a big phone' or 'everybody I know is switching to Android because they want a big phone'. When the 5C launched, it was 'I've never seen anyone with a 5C'. When the iPhone 6 Plus arrived, it was anecdotes about how people don't use their iPad minis any more. People like to validate their own opinions by looking at people nearest to them but nobody can assess an international market of millions of people from 'everyone I know' or 'everyone I see'. The most reliable way is from the sales figures. We only know Fitbit's so far. Apple will report their figures at the end of July in their 'other' segment. It was at $1.6b last quarter and $1.7b the equivalent Q3 last year. If they sold 3m watches for example then it will show up at least $1b higher at around $2.7b.