Fitbit’s Smart Watch Sales are Surging

Fitbit announced better-than-expected revenues for the quarter ending March 31 thanks to a 117 percent increase in smartwatch sales.

“We saw continued momentum across our business in the first quarter, with revenue up 10 percent and devices sold up 36 percent year-over-year,” Fitbit co-founder and CEO James Park said in a prepared statement. “Smartwatch device sales increased 117 percent YOY, and the introduction of our new trackers, Inspire and Inspire HR, helped spark the first quarter of year-over-year growth in tracker device sales in three years.”

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Fitbit posted a net loss of $79.5 million on revenues of $272 million. Smartwatches were the primary driver of those revenues, Fitbit said, with its tracker business growing only 17 percent by revenue in the quarter. Total devices sold jump 36 percent by unit sales YOY. Versa Lite is the firm’s biggest success story so far in 2019.

Fitbit also reported that its Health Solutions business grew 70 percent YOY and delivered $30.5 million in revenues.

“New users are continuing to join the Fitbit platform with active users increasing in the first quarter,” Park added, “underscoring the effectiveness of our strategy to bring more users onto the Fitbit platform with the introduction of more accessible, affordable devices.”

According to Counterpoint, Fitbit is now the fourth-biggest maker of smartwatches, behind Apple, which dominates this market, Samsung, and Imoo. But as is the case in smartphones, Huawei grew share faster than any of its competitors in the most recent quarter and should establish itself as a top player sometime this year.

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  • provision l-3

    03 May, 2019 - 1:02 pm

    <p>Paul is really stretching to spin this one as positive. </p><p><br></p><p>So fitbit smartwatches grew by 117% and trackers grew 17% with total wearables up 36% as a whole. That is great right? Triple and double digit growth! Except that 36% growth is from 2.2 to 2.9* million and if you do the math to break out smartwatches and wearables. Smartwatches went from 0.58 million to 1.08 million and wearables went from 1.6 million to 1.9. It really isn't that impressive. Worse is the average selling price dropped by 19% to 91 dollars. If your most expensive item is driving the growth then you should see the ASP go up not down. That means the growth is coming at by reducing the asking price. The net result was that growth netted them 7% revenue growth on wearables. And wearables is what is actually driving their revenue growth. </p><p><br></p><p>Given the company isn't profitable and is forecasting more loses it is hard to see how they are going to get there when what growth they can get is by putting stuff on sale. This turkey is done, put a fork in it. </p><p><br></p><p>*The wearables numbers are actually lower as this include fit bits sale of scales as well.</p>

  • rmlounsbury

    Premium Member
    03 May, 2019 - 2:29 pm

    <p>Good to see that Fitbit is doing well. If I was all in on Apple I'd without question go for an Apple Watch. However, since I'm on Android and WearOS remains a complete dumpster file (After a few months I hate my Fossil Sport) and I went back to my old Fitbit Charge 2. </p>

    • wolters

      Premium Member
      03 May, 2019 - 2:47 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#425509">In reply to rmlounsbury:</a></em></blockquote><p>I supported Android Wear for many years but swallowed my pride and against my pre-conceived notions, I went to Galaxy Watch (Tizen) and I am so very impressed…battery life for sure but the Health Tracking is much better. </p>

    • RonH

      Premium Member
      03 May, 2019 - 4:45 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#425509">In reply to rmlounsbury:</a></em></blockquote><p>Try out a Garmin</p>

    • wright_is

      Premium Member
      05 May, 2019 - 3:48 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#425509">In reply to rmlounsbury:</a></em></blockquote><p>Take a look at the Huawei Watch GT or the Garmin Vivoactive range. I nearly went for the Vivoactive, but ended up going with the Watch GT and I am very happy with it.</p><p>I had nothing but problems with my Charge 1 and 2 – the 1 was replaced twice by Amazon when the rubber casing came away from the body (on both my watch and my wife's) and the Charge 2 just refuses to sync nowadays – it looks like it has the same problem the Windows Phone App had, you have to reboot the phone between syncs!</p>

  • dcdevito

    03 May, 2019 - 4:26 pm

    <p>My wife and I picked up Apple Watches today, in a word: WOW. JUST WOW. </p>

  • Simard57

    03 May, 2019 - 8:24 pm

    <p>"<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Fitbit posted a net loss of $79.5 million on revenues of $272 million.&nbsp;" is that good news?</span></p><p><br></p>

  • ponsaelius

    04 May, 2019 - 7:34 am

    <p>Maybe it's a market Microsoft should consider…… (cough!)</p>

  • Greg Green

    04 May, 2019 - 11:52 am

    <p>Their net loss last quarter is almost half of their loss for entirety of last year. That’s not good. Their revenues last quarter are a fifth of last year’s revenues. That’s not good either.</p><p><br></p><p>Fitbit, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, $US:</p><p><br></p><p>Net Income -185,829m, -277,192m, -102,777m, +175,677m</p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Total Revenue 1.5B, 1.6B, 2.1B, 1.8B</span></p><p><br></p><p>This quarter annualized means annual loss of $320 m and total annual revenues of $1B, which is more loss and less revenue than last year. That’s not good either.</p>

  • wright_is

    Premium Member
    05 May, 2019 - 3:44 am

    <p>I had a Charge 1 and Charge 2, but it was too easy to cheat. Then it stopped syncing and it will only sync if there is an internet connection! Why does it need an internet connection to sync over bluetooth to the smartphone? And you have to turn on location tracking on the phone to be able to sync. I can understand having location tracking turned on when actually recording an outdoor activity, but why do you need location turned on for syncing?</p><p>My wife struggled on with it, but it has refused for 2 weeks to sync with her phone, so she has thrown it in the bottom draw. We are looking at an alternative for her. I now have a Huawei Watch GT, which is nice, has long battery life (1.5 weeks to 1 month, depending on use) and it isn't as susceptible to "cheating" as the Fitbit, but it is too big for her. I am looking at their fitness band, which also has a 1.5-2 week battery life.</p><p>FitBit seem to be stuck in a nonmans land between cheap trackers and professional trackers. They are too expensive for casual use and too unreliable for professional use. A real sportsman will take a Garmin or Polar device, somebody that just wants steps will pay a fifth of the price of the Charge 3 for a noname tracker. Fitbit was interesting when the market first started, but they are being eaten away at at both end and their own segment, they also have competition from Samsung, Huawei and other big names now, even Garmin has some cheap "feature" watches in the same price category.</p><p>Given the reliability problems (build quality and the reliability of the "step" count) with their devices and the syncing problems, I think they might have a tough time ahead.</p>

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