Fitbit announced last week that in its first month of selling its two newest device: Fitbit Blaze and Fitbit Alta devices, it has sold 1 million of each. Additionally, during that time frame, the company says the Blaze was the best-selling device in the smartwatch category on Amazon.
“At Fitbit, we continue to focus on developing innovative and motivating fitness-first products that our customers love and that help them achieve their health and fitness goals,” Woody Scal, chief business officer of Fitbit, said in a statement. “The positive response we’ve received to Blaze and Alta demonstrates our continued ability to innovate and drive strong demand for Fitbit products, which is what has made and kept us the leader in the global wearables category.”
Fitbit continues to lead the dedicated fitness tracking device market, according to a recent report from Canalys. Beyond that, a number of different reports also have it that despite the hype factor, Fitbit is still outselling and outshipping the Apple Watch. An ON World survey last year showed consumers preferring the Fitbit, a June report from Slice Intelligence showed that the Apple Watch wasn't affecting Fitbit sales, and an August IDC report showed Apple trailing Fitbit on shipments.
In an interview with the Telegraph, Fitbit CEO James Park said he doesn't even see the Apple Watch as competition.
"I think it’s a great product and Apple’s a great company, but it’s a product that probably does too much,” Park told the Telegraph. “Really our research has shown that people who search for an interest in the Apple Watch do not overlap with people who search for and are interested in Fitbit. I think the biggest problem with the category today is they do so many things and it hasn’t been really clearly communicated to people why they should need one of these devices.”
Fitbit Blaze, announced in January, has a color display and offers on-screen workouts, powered by FitStar, a company Fitbit acquired last year. Similar to the Fitbit Surge, the device also provides users with workout summaries, call and text notification, and music control. Blaze has a five-day battery life. It also uses GPS to track runs, offers continuous heart rate monitoring, and keeps tabs on sleep.
Fitbit Alta, launched in February, is a more fashion-focused device that offers exercise recognition, all-day activity tracking, call, text, and calendar alerts, as well as a clock. Fitbit Alta also offers a feature new to Fitbit devices, called reminder to move. This offering, similar to Apple’s Stand feature, aims to help users stay active and reduce stationary time by prompting them to reach a mini-step goal of 250 steps per hour. Fitbit says this number of steps is equivalent to between two and three minutes of walking.
