Apple has seen great success with their Apple Watch Series 3, despite the lukewarm sales of the original models. With a renewed focus as a health and fitness accessory, the Apple Watch Series 3 is in a league of its own in terms of luxury fitness tracking. However, Fitbit is another major player in the wearable arena and has been helping people track their steps long before Apple gave their take on the technology. With the release of the Fitbit Versa on the horizon, can the company compete with the dominance of the Apple Watch Series 3?
The Fitbit Versa actually marks the company’s third attempt to make a fully-featured smartwatch, with the previous two releases failing to catch on to the extent that they had hoped. While Fitbit has been a staple in fitness technology for years at this point, they have yet to make a significant dent when it comes to luxury smart devices. However, as technology starts to get more advanced, people are starting to expect more out of their fitness trackers – such as the features offered with devices like the Apple Watch Series 3. The Fitbit Versa is the company’s attempt to recapture the portion of the fitness market they had lost to Apple, and it certainly seems as if they’re positioned to do just that.
Breaking into the luxury wearable arena when it’s currently dominated by the likes of the Apple Watch Series 3 is no easy feat, but the Fitbit Versa may be the device that can knock Apple off its throne when it comes to fitness trackers. With many of the same features at a less expensive price, it may soon be difficult to justify shelling out hundreds of dollars for a luxury Apple Watch when the Fitbit Versa can do similar things for just $200 – $50 less than the base Apple Watch Series 3.
While Fitbit will also release the Fitbit Ace in the coming months – a tracker aimed towards kids – the company is truly relying on the Fitbit Versa to drive some significant sales and re establish the company as the go-to manufacturer for fitness trackers – especially in the high-end scene.
As mentioned above, the Fitbit Versa and the Apple Watch Series 3 have many similarities – one of which being the premium design. Apple has long been lauded for their design and aesthetics, so it’s no wonder that Fitbit is taking a note out of their playbook with the release of the Fitbit Versa. The shape of the Fitbit Versa is quite similar to that of the Apple Watch Series 3, and they both feel like truly premium devices.
The Fitbit Versa also has the technical chops to back up their beautiful aesthetic, with a solid list of features that includes heart rate monitoring, 50 meter water resistance, on-board music storage, and compatibility with a huge number of watchfaces and apps – making it one of the most impressive Fitbits to date, and even one of the most fully-featured smartwatches in general.
Fitbit’s previous smartwatch – the Ionic – felt much bigger and clunkier than the Apple Watch Series 3. While the Fitbit Versa does lack some of the features that were included in the Ionic such as GPS functionality, it’s more fully features overall and is built with a slimmer profile that puts it much more inline with the luxury Apple device it intends to compete with.
The Fitbit Versa is the company’s effort to reach a larger audience with their devices – with a particular focus on women. In upcoming updates, the Fitbit will support functionality that allows women to track their menstrual cycles – a feature that many use a separate dedicated app for. This focus on bringing in more women to their product family may give the Fitbit Versa the edge it needs to compete with the Apple Watch Series 3.
With a refreshed design, new software, a bevy of apps and a renewed focus on catering to women, the Fitbit Versa is shaping up to be a worthy competitor to the Apple Watch Series 3. While it does lack some of the health tools of the Apple Watch and struggles with seamless iOS integration, we may soon see a world with Fitbit as a major player in the luxury smartwatch scene. Both devices perform comparably, so you’ll likely be happy with either one. At a lower price point with comparable features, however, the Fitbit Versa will be difficult to beat.
