Thursday, March 15, 2018

FitBit

After tepid sales of its first smartwatch, Fitbit has a new
model for the Spring with a lower price and a more
appealing look.

The new $200 Fitbit Versa looks a lot more like an
Apple Watch, with a brighter, curvier design than the
chunky, science fiction inspired $300 Ionic model
released last year. The smaller Versa arrives in April
and should fit women’s wrists better. Available for
preorder starting on Tuesday, it also comes in a
broader range of color combinations, including a
more feminine rose gold model with a light peach
strap. The massive Ionic model only looked good
on people with big wrists and came in mostly
masculine color schemes. Some reviewers called it
flat out ugly.

“Looking forward, we’re going to continue to evolve,”
CEO James Park said on Monday at a presentation
for reporters. “We do strongly feel that there’s
significant opportunity for us to gain more share through
the launch of more mass appeal devices in the category…
most importantly all at the right price point.”

The move to revamp its smartwatch push comes after
a difficult holiday shopping season for Fitbit’s entire line
of watches and trackers. Ionic was supposed to offset
falling sales of simpler fitness trackers, but it was too
niche. Fitbit sold only 5.4 million total devices in the
fourth quarter, down from 6.5 million a year earlier and
8.2 million sold back in 2015. Ionic failed to meet
“aggressive goals” that the company had set, CEO Park
has admitted. Total sales in the 2017 quarter declined
1% to $571 million and fell short of the $588 million that
analysts had expected.

Fitbit’s stock hit an all-time low of $4.67 after the fourth
quarter report, though it has since bounced back a bit
to close at $5.31 on Monday. Still, that represents a loss
of almost three-quarters since Fitbit (FIT, -1.48%) went

public in 2015.

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