At CES last week, Fitbit CEO James Park announced the company’s plans to launch a dedicated wearables app store later this year. Few details were given about it, but we do know that it’ll be a portal for health and wellness apps.
With the its stock value in decline and the public demand weakening for Fitbit’s current products, the company really needs something new in 2017 to keep them relevant. There’s a lot of potential here, so we’ve taken a look at five reasons why you should be excited and intrigued by this development.
1. It means a Fitbit smartwatch is all but certain
Fitbit bought struggling smartwatch firm, Pebble, just at the end of the year. Pebble fans had their reasons to not like that decision, but it is what it is. If that wasn’t enough, the company also acquired the Vector smartwatch startup as well. Presumably, these acquisitions and its App Store plan are linked. After all, there has to be some kind of product coming that would work with an App Store, given latest models wouldn’t be capable of doing so.
It seems likely that we’ll soon see a Fitbit branded smartwatch that uses Pebble’s OS, while possibly maintaining the look of the Fitbit Blaze—Fitbit’s nearest thing to a “proper” smartwatch—or possibly with the look of the Vector smartwatch. The Pebble is a pretty good and inexpensive smartwatch that could make it an ideal candidate for Fitbit to adapt.
2. More competition is always good
There’s a wealth of smartwatches available to consumers, but none have quite cracked it. There’s no one perfect smartwatch. Instead, you have to choose from a set of features that are never quite right for your needs. The Apple Watch Series 2 is close but it’s considerably more expensive than anything Fitbit has offered.
Fitbit’s just leveraged itself into the perfect position to offer an effective fitness band that’s also a useful smartwatch. Could it finally be the smartwatch to convert naysayers? The device that we all wanted the Blaze to be? Regardless, it might push other firms into developing that product.
3. New Fitbits might be even better
