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Fitbit can't live up to the aura of Apple
Silicon Valley is built on precise engineering, data-driven analysis and software as rational as the semiconductors on which it runs. It is also one of the most emotional locations in American business.
In this case, we're not talking about the irrational exuberance in the management of a company like Zenefits, where greed for growth may have led to regulatory cheating, and greed for fun meant beer kegs at work.
There is also the irrationality of glitz and aura and living with fickle consumers. Fitbit makes a device that tracks things like steps and sleep from a wearer's wrist. Founded in 2007, the company has more than 1,000 employees and last year sold 21.3 million devices, almost twice the number of a year earlier.
Sound good? It might be, but for the aura accorded to Apple products. For many tech product reviewers and fans, Apple's Watch, wrist-worn and capable of doing what Fitbit does, is the standard by which Fitbit falls short.
The Apple Watch does more things. The Apple Watch is an Apple product, and those sell well. Fitbit announces a new product and its stock drops, because it is not Apple.
Never mind that Fitbits sell for much less, probably to a different audience, or that Apple's last quarter showed declining sales.
The real problem the company seems to be struggling with is that it is not Apple. Fitbit is a single-purpose device, but that's been true for years. It may be that there is room in the world for both things.
On the other hand, that may be too rational a view for the tech world and its investors.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
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WASHINGTON POST
