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Tag: Fitness Trackers

  • Fitbit Files $100 Million IPO

    Fitbit Files $100 Million IPO

    Fitness tracking wearables company Fitbit has decided to go public

    According to Fortune, Fitbit will trade on the NYSE under the symbol FIT. The company says it plans to raise $100 million, but that number is likely to change.

    Fitbit’s regulatory filing revealed some interesting things about the company – including some impressive numbers in terms of revenues and profit.

    According to the filing, Fitbit hauled in over $745 million in revenues in 2014, up from $271 million the previous year. The company was profitable for the first time in 2014, generated nearly $132 million in net income. The previous year, that figure was a loss ($51.6 million).

    Fitbit also revealed just how many devices it has sold.

    In 2011, the company sold 200,000 devices. By 2012, that number was 1.3 million. Last year, Fitbit sold 10.9 million devices.

    “Our primary goal is to help our users improve their health and fitness. We believe our platform assists users in changing their daily behavior, such as eating healthier foods or going for a run or walking more to reach a goal or win a challenge. We empower our users to set their own health and fitness goals and track their progress towards these goals. We also offer premium services on a subscription basis that provide personalized insights and virtual coaching through customized fitness plans and interactive video-based exercise experiences on mobile devices and computers. Our premium services feature in-depth data analysis and personalized reports, as well as benchmarking against peers,” said Fitbit.

    And yes, if you were wondering, Fitbit’s filing takes a sideswipe at the Apple Watch.

    “By offering a broad range of products spanning styles and affordable price points and cross-platform compatibility, we empower a wide range of individuals with different fitness routines and goals that are difficult for other competitors to address. Moreover, our singular focus on building a connected health and fitness platform, coupled with a leading market share, has led to our brand becoming synonymous with the connected health and fitness category. This singular focus on health and fitness has driven us to dedicate significant resources to developing proprietary sensors, algorithms, and software to ensure that our products, which are specifically oriented towards health and fitness, have accurate measurements, insightful analytics, compact sizes, durability, and long battery lives. We believe this singular focus allows us to compete favorably with companies that have introduced or have announced plans to introduce devices with broad-based functionalities, including health and fitness tracking capabilities, which are not necessarily optimized for health and fitness usage.”

    Image via Fitbit, Facebook

  • Fitness Trackers by GOQii Train You from India

    GOQii has launched a wearable fitness tracker that will send users’ data to personal trainers in India to assist them in meeting their fitness goals. According to the Wall Street Journal, GOQii has partnered with Snapdeal to distribute the watches. Although GOQii does not charge for the watches themselves, the service will cost consumers $99 for six months. Customers connect with personal trainers via text messaging and personal calls. For further motivation, users will earn karma points for reaching their goals. For every karma point earned, GOQii sends money to charity or “helping the world by helping yourself reach goals,” as GOQii founder Vishal Gondal told the Wall Street Journal.

    Gondal demonstrated the service to Forbes in an interview. “‘Did you get time for a run?’ [his trainer] Swapnil can’t read Gondal’s GPS data, but can see that he hasn’t taken very many steps that day,” wrote Forbes’ Parmy Olson, “Gondal now looks sheepish. ‘I haven’t run so I haven’t replied to the message. This is playing in my mind that I have to reply.’ He stares at the message for a moment. “Ok I’ll tell him now.” Gondal’s thumbs fly across his Nokia phone. ‘Yes. Running tomorrow for sure,’ he tells Swapnil.”

    According to the Pew Research Center, 69% of adults in the United States track their personal fitness. However, only 21% of adults use technology to track their data, as opposed to 34% who use paper and 49% who use “their heads”.

    In a report from the Health Data Exploration Project, it was found that tracking of personal data will play an important role in future healthcare. “I’ve talked to my doctors about it and let them know I’ve been tracking my activity levels. I can see when it’s lower than average, or higher than average and sort of try to increase my daily average,” said a participant in their study, “They’re just like, ‘OK, that’s neat. Sure. You still need to lose weight.’ I’m like, ‘Yes, I know!’ I feel like to them it’s like someone looking up symptoms on Google, and coming up with some crazy illness that they think they have.” GOQii, and other like it, may transform the way adults and their doctors approach health and fitness.

    Image via GOQii, YouTube