Fitbit's Shocking Downfall: How This $10 Billion Company Lost It All

What Happened to Fitbit? The Rise and Fall of a Fitness Tracker Giant

When's the last time you saw someone proudly showing off a Fitbit? Maybe it's been a while. Rewind to 2015 and it was a totally different story. You're out for a walk, checking your wrist, and that little buzz hits when you nail 10,000 steps. Fitbit wasn't just a gadget back then - it was a movement.

Fitbit kicked off in 2007 as the brainchild of James Park and Eric Friedman. These guys saw a gap: people wanted to quantify their lives - steps, sleep, calories - and nothing out there was nailing it.

The Meteoric Rise of Fitbit

Their first big swing was the Fitbit Tracker in 2009 - a little clip-on device that tracked steps and synced to your computer. Primitive by today's standards, but revolutionary at the time. By 2011, the Fitbit Ultra upped the ante with stairs climbed and sleep tracking in a tiny package. People ate it up.

Fitbit's Peak Performance (2015):
- Went public with stock soaring past $50/share
- Sold 21 million units annually
- Generated nearly $2 billion in revenue
- Controlled 19% of the wearable market

Where It All Started to Go Wrong

Enter Apple. The Apple Watch dropped in 2015 and at first it wasn't a direct threat. It was pricey ($350 minimum), had laughable battery life (18 hours if you were lucky), and leaned more on notifications than fitness. Fitbit laughed it off, even stating in their IPO documents: "We don't see smartwatches as competition." Famous last words.

Apple iterated fast. By Series 2 in 2016, it was waterproof with better fitness tracking. Series 3 in 2017 added cellular and heart rate precision that matched Fitbit's best. Sales exploded - 20 million units that year, double Fitbit's haul.

The Competition Heats Up

Apple wasn't the only competitor. Samsung's Galaxy Watch brought Android muscle with GPS and apps. Garmin went hard at fitness nuts with devices like the Forerunner. Then there were budget options like Xiaomi's Mi Band - good enough for most at just $30.

Market Share Decline:
- 2016: Fitbit controlled 19% of wearables market
- 2023: Fitbit's share fell below 5%
- Apple captured over 30%
- Garmin and Samsung climbed steadily

Fitbit's Own Missteps

Fitbit had a golden window to stay ahead but moved too slowly. The Blaze in 2016 was their first smartwatch attempt but lacked GPS. The Versa fixed that in 2019, but by then Apple and Samsung were years ahead. Fitbit's app store remained a ghost town compared to Apple's thriving ecosystem.

Hardware was another miss. While the Charge 5 and Versa 3 looked sharp, they never had that "got to have it" vibe. In a world where wearables double as fashion, "fine" doesn't cut it.

The Google Acquisition and Beyond

By 2021, Fitbit was ripe for acquisition. Google bought them for $2.1 billion - a bargain compared to their $10 billion peak valuation. The pitch? Fitbit's fitness know-how would supercharge Google's Wear OS.

Post-acquisition, we got the Versa 4 and Sense 2 in 2022 with Google Maps and Assistant baked in. Good devices, but not game changers. Then Google made a controversial move - restricting Fitbit's popular community features to push users toward Google Fit, alienating loyalists.

Why Fitbit Lost Its Edge

Fundamentally, the world moved on. In 2012, a Fitbit was novel - your phone couldn't track steps or sleep like that. Today, every smartphone does it for free. Smartwatches took it further with calls, texts, and Spotify all on your wrist.

Fitbit's decline is a textbook case of first-mover advantage turning into a trap. They invented the fitness tracker, made it a household name, then watched the world pass them by.

Walking into a Best Buy today, the wearable aisle is all Apple and Garmin hype. Fitbit's there, sure, but it's like spotting a relic from a simpler time - kind of sad, kind of forgotten.

Published on March 20, 2025 | Fitness Technology Analysis