What happened
Shares of activity tracker company Fitbit, Inc. (FIT) plunged 11.8% in October, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence, after an unimpressive product introduction. If the company is going to recover from its recent woes, it'll need to wow customers and doesn't seem to be doing that in 2017.
So what
In October, the Fitbit Ionic was announced, a new smartwatch that's waterproof, has GPS, Bluetooth, heart rate monitoring, and more. The problem is that Ionic is going up against products like the Apple Watch Series 3 that has cellular connectivity, similar features, and an ecosystem of apps to draw from.
Image source: Getty Images.
Early reviews were critical of the smartwatch's software and a price tag of $299.95, compared to the Apple Watch's starting price of $329. Few apps on Fitbit's app store is also a problem and the launch of Fitbit Pay in the U.S. was underwhelming with just one supporting small bank.
Now what
The uncertainty around Ionic's launch wasn't helped by the Nov.1 release of third-quarter earnings results, which showed a 22.1% drop in revenue for the quarter to $392.5 million and a net loss of $113.4 million, or $0.48 per share. If new products can't bolster Fitbit's performance the company will be in trouble long-term. Right now, I don't see a lot of positive signs for the company.
