Fitbit upgrades two activity trackers, ponders the future of sensors

Fitbit has positioned itself as king of the fitness wearables market. While Garmin might have more premium devices, Fitbit has a larger share of the market as its devices do not cost as much, which is important for the average consumer. Jawbone competes more directly with Fitbit, but the latter has so thoroughly dominated the competition that Jawbone resorted to suing Fitbit. Even with all its success, Fitbit is already looking ahead to the future of the market, starting with recent product refreshes in the form of the Charge 2 and Flex 2. These sell for $150 and $100, respectively.

The new devices were designed with the idea of offering more for the same price as their predecessors. The Charge 2 comes with more features and a bigger display, while the Flex 2 shrinks in size at the expense of some of the extra sensors that come in the Charge. Reception to the new devices has already been positive, and the company was awarded on Wall Street with a 2 percent stock price boost, which is a big improvement over the 18 percent decline the stock took after Fitbit announced its Blaze smart watch.

Smart watches are no longer the cool new thing, so Fitbit's foray into that market was likely perceived as the company becoming sidetracked. Even traditional wrist-worn activity trackers are becoming a little stale, though, and Fitbit knows it. That is why it is preparing for a future in which all kinds of accessories and jewelry come with sensors built into them. It may eventually get to the point at which Fitbit makes the sensors and other technology that go into wearables and leaves the fashion design up to third parties. That is a possible future for the company given its outlook. In a feature story from Wired, Fitbit's vice president of research and development told the publication, “It [has] always been about getting sensors and data to people."

Fitbit can, of course, keep everything in-house and rely on its brand to sell devices, but fashion increasingly matters in the wearables market. Consumers are no longer happy wearing mini-computers on their wrists simply because they are new technology (and frankly, there were never that many people who wanted to do that, anyway). Other companies have toyed with the idea of wearable technology in jewelry. A quick search on Global Sources will yield many results for gadgets such as NFC rings and smart pendants. Consumers, however, appreciate good fashion and fashion brands. So far, it remains to be seen whether a technology firm can be considered a fashion company as well. So far, only Apple has come the closest to achieving this. Wearable companies could do well getting their sensor technology in a range of fashion products, though.