Clearing the way for its own fitness-tracking wearables, Apple has stopped selling Fitbit activity trackers in the Apple Online Store, and has begun removing them from its brick-and-mortar retail outlets also.
Fitbit’s devices have been sold in Apple Stores for the past few years; quickly racking up close to 70% of the fitness-tracking device marketshare, courtesy of a head start over competitors such as Nike’s FuelBand and Jawbone Up.
Interestingly, the Apple Store continues to sell rival products including Jawbone’s UP24, the Withings Pulse, and the Nike+ Fuelband SE trackers. No announcement has been made to explain the anti-Fitbit move, but it could relate to Fitbit’s refusal to not immediately include HealthKit integration.
Fitbits can still be bought from physical outlets including Best Buy, Kohls, Target, and Walmart — as well as from numerous locations online.
“Our mission remains to empower and inspire people to lead healthier, more active lives,” a representative for Fitbit told Cult of Mac shortly after Apple announced Apple Watch. “To that end we welcome new products and services like Apple Watch to the market that help further that mission. We think that the more people learn about the benefits of tracking health and fitness, the more Fitbit’s offerings will resonate with consumers.”
We wonder if their attitude will remain the same after losing a major retail market. We’ve reached out to Fitbit for a comment, and will update the story if we hear anything.
Via: iMore
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
11 responses to “Apple sends Fitbit’s activity trackers on a long run… out of Apple Stores”
I’ll get a fitbit Surge and not a Apple Watch for these 2 main reasons: 7 days battery life and no smartphone “slave” mode.
Really? Because the primary reasons for Fitbit to not be part of HealthKit are:
1) they want to sell you access to the data you have generated
2) they want to sell the data you have generated to other people
To me, either of these is more than enough to overcome “must charge every night”.
First time I heard those 2 arguments, please can you elaborate: it’s in their policy? Did they had already a privacy problem? How they charge me to get access to my data? They are selling it to whom? And most important: how Apple’s different in those aspects? – sorry for too much questions, I just want to learn.
Try reading their “privacy” policy and about ‘Fitbit Premium’ on their web site. Then go and google HealthKit and read about it on Apple’s web site.
Fitbit Premium: 49/year. It has a nutrition and trainer plan (I get that with a 3rd party) and “in depth analysis of your data”. It looks that it will create reports, but not hide your data. Health can do that for free to?
About privacy:
“What Data May be Shared With Third Parties?
First and foremost: We don’t sell any data that could identify you. We only share data about you when it is necessary to provide our services, when the data is de-identified and aggregated, or when you direct us to share it.”
Exception listed is when the user connects the Fitbit with Twitter or Facebook accounts.
For me looks OK, they don’t sell your data.
You must have very good quality life for 7 days of battery. My Flex only lasts 3 days before I find out the battery is dead when Bluetooth fails to connect.
The Surge is not released yet, the 7 days is from the spec sheet.
fitbit sounds like they would fit right into Googles family perfectly. time for a buy out.
you guys obviously haven’t heard the big fitbit news. check their forums. there is a big blow up there because fitbit announced they will NOT be integrating fitbit into healthkit. that is why apple is pulling them and people are dropping fitbit like a hot rock. DO NOT purchase fitbit if you plan on using it with healthkit. Also they do sell your “private” data to third parties.
Also this story has been updated to reflect this post on the imore site.
Must be just the new ones.
I was in the Potomac Mills Virginia Apple Store Sunday. And I saw all Flexes.