Fitbit announced four new wearables today: the Inspire, Inspire HR, Ace 2, and Versa Lite Edition. Today, Fitbit also killed off four wearables: the Alta (released February 2016), Alta HR (released March 2017), Flex 2 (released October 2016), and Zip (released September 2012).
It’s the new Inspire and Inspire HR that are really doing the damage here. The Fitbit Ace 2 replaces the Fitbit Ace, as you might expect, and the Versa Lite Edition isn’t replacing anything. But the Inspire and Inspire HR are the company’s cheapest wrist-worn trackers to date, and so it took the opportunity to slash its product lineup. We sat down with Fitbit vice president of product marketing Melanie Chase to talk about the thinking behind the changes.
“There’s a ton of growth happening in the smartwatch market, but the tracker market is still really important, and it’s holding steady,” Chase explained. “We want to right-size our product line to sort of match what’s going on there. So you want to have a really efficient value-oriented tracker lineup, where we have a good-better-best model to serve the needs of that consumer with a very efficient device. And then, on the smartwatch side, we want to be part of that growth trajectory. And we really want to lean into where we see important growth for Fitbit, which is in that sub-$200 price point that IDC called out as a key growth area.”
Until stock runs out, you will still be able to find these devices. Fitbit will of course support them, but it won’t actively sell them via its channels, which will be focused on the new products.
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9 Fitbit wearables
Fitbit may have consolidated its wearables lineup, but the array is still sizeable. There are now five adult trackers, one kid tracker, and three smartwatches: Inspire, Inspire HR, Charge 3, Charge 3 Special Edition, Ace 2, Versa Lite Edition, Versa, Versa Special Edition, and Ionic.
It’s not clear whether Fitbit will launch a Versa 2, an Ionic 2, or both next year. But whatever it does launch to replace the dated Ionic (released in October 2017) will include GPS. “I can’t speak to the future roadmap, but we’re certainly committed to keeping GPS capability in our portfolio of products,” Chase promised.
