Fitbit Is Removing Many Community-Focused Features
This decision eliminates one of the platform’s best features: a sense of community. Reportedly, more than 31 million people use Fitbit at least once a week. That’s a staggering number and a group of customers ripe for creating and maintaining an active community. At a time when the market is flooded with competing fitness tracker and smartwatch brands, it has become increasingly difficult to stand out. According to Statista, Fitbit has been leading the wearables space since 2014, accounting for almost half the worldwide market share at 45%. The company’s solid grasp on the market (though it now faces stiff competition from the likes of Apple, Garmin, and others) is partly because of the unique Challenges and groups. While other companies, like Apple, have a version of Challenges, they’re not as robust as what Fitbit supports. “Nonetheless, for anyone new to the market looking for a fitness tracker or smartwatch that can do it all and connect them to a wealth of information and a community of people, this news makes Fitbit a less appealing platform to consider,” adds Persaud. “All we can do is hope for bigger and better things to come with Google integration in the future.”
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