Roger Fingas
Fitbit on Wednesday launched a handful of new wearables to challenge the Apple Watch, led by the Versa Lite, a less expensive version of its Versa smartwatch.
The Versa Lite retains the same size and dimensions of its sibling, but makes several sacrifices, most notably jettisoning music playback. It also loses Wi-Fi, NFC, and tracking of floor climbs and swim laps, though it's still waterproof to a depth of 50 meters (164 feet).
The one benefit is price: the Versa Lite is $159.95, $40 less than the regular Versa.
Also new are the Inspire and Inspire HR, replacing the Alta line as well as the Zip and Flex 2. Both Inspire models have up to 5 days of battery life, and features like sleep tracking, OLED touchscreens, and 50-meter waterproofing. Some features are reserved for the Inspire HR, namely heartrate tracking, guided breathing, goal-based exercise modes, and detailed sleep stages.
The Inspire is $69.95, and the Inspire HR $99.95.
For kids Fitbit is preparing the Ace 2, which is based on the Inspire and costs the same, making it cheaper than the original Ace. Another perk is that when they mature, kids can simply update the Ace 2's software to access "adult" features. The product should ship sometime this summer.
Fitbit was once a dominant player in the wearables space, but has had to reposition itself since the Apple Watch debuted in 2015. It now has two smartwatch lines — the Versa and Ionic — which, along with products from Samsung and Garmin, have eaten into Apple's marketshare. The Watch still holds a commanding lead at an estimated 50.7 percent.
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44 Comments
FitBit is still around?
Someone would be crazy to buy from a dead-man-walking company.
Not wearing two fitness trackers so never going to by any of Fitbit's stuff. I use a third party app to sync my AppleWatch to Fitbit but it only works somewhat. Apple should just buy Fitbit as they have the best app for tracking calories. Or Fitbit should start charging a monthly fee to support the AppleWatch.
The only advantages FitBit has over is longer battery life & sleep tracking. I not see dropping my Apple Watch for those. That said FitBit has a more robust social experience in the app and (no doubt due to price point) a large user base. If I was going to jump ship though, I'd go the direction of Samsung products not FitBit.
My wife and I both have Versa SE (with NFC payments). They do exactly what we want them to do and nothing more. I bought two for what one Apple Watch Series 3 would cost. I don't really care that it doesn't have GPS. I take my phone with me when I exercise, so I'm fine with the Versa using the GPS on my phone...which has a much stronger battery. When you run with an Apple Watch and have your phone with you, it uses the iPhone GPS and there's no way to prevent it from using the GPS on the phone unless you shut off GPS on your phone.
I'm sure the Apple Watch is really great for some people. For people like me, it's overkill.