While the company hasn’t released its holiday sales numbers yet, its app downloads suggest that a number of people were gifted their first device.
Sales numbers still a ways away, stock up 3%
While Fitbit’s sales numbers will not likely be known until the company files its next quarterly numbers, a change in guidance from the wearables leader wouldn’t come as a shock to many who are looking closely at the company. Pre-market, saw Fitbit pick-up around 6% share value though this has fallen off a bit in early morning trading. On Thursday, prior to the market closing after a half-day of trading, Fitbit stock closed at $28.91. It opened on Monday at $30.22 before falling off a bit and then recovering some of those gains. As of this writing, the company is trading at $29.92 or an increase of 3.40%. (10:42 EST)
Tracking app downloads, Fitbit looks to have had quite the holiday season
Fitbit’s fitness-tracking app, prior to the holiday gift buying season, already held the top spot in the Health & Fitness section of Apple’s App Store (iOS). Now, the company’s iOS app sits atop the list of downloads in the “Free” section of the App Store, a move of over 20 spots.
Obviously, this jump suggests that a number of people either received one of the company’s wearable fitness trackers as a gift or simply purchased one for themselves and ahead of the New Year’s resolution season felt the need to get tracking.
Fitbit has numerous competitors in the fitness-tracking field but it is the clear leader in the industry without about 22% of the market. As the industry matures, some will surely drop out just as sure as others will try to grab their part of the pie including luxury watch makers like TAG Heuer who have been forced to increase production on its own product due to high demand even with a price tag of $1500.
The San Francisco-based company while founded in 2007, has seen a real uptake in sales with three models announced in 2014: The Fitbit Surge, Charge, and Flex. The Surge is the top-end model which not only counts your steps, your heart rate, and sleep time but also serves up text notifications and includes a GPS tracker.