Fitbit Inc. is a company headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States.
Founded and managed by James Park and Eric Friedman, the company is known for its products
of the same name, which are activity trackers, wireless-enabled wearable devices that measure
data such as the number of steps walked, quality of sleep, and other personal metrics.
The first of these was the Fitbit Tracker.
The average price of a Fitbit is between $60 and $130, depending on the model.
However, data cannot be downloaded off the Fitbit website unless one pays the premium
membership price of $49 per year.
Intraday data analysis cannot be downloaded at all.
Fitbit Tracker
The Fitbit Tracker uses a three-dimensional accelerometer, similar to that in the Wii
Remote, to sense user movement.
The Tracker measures steps taken, and combines it with user data to calculate distance walked,
calories burned, floors climbed, and activity duration and intensity.
It uses an OLED display to display this and other information such as the battery level.
It also measures sleep quality by tracking periods of restlessness, how long it takes
the wearer to fall asleep, and how long they are actually asleep.
A wireless base station is included to receive data from the Tracker and also charge its
battery.
When connected to a computer the base station will upload data to the Fitbit website, where
a number of features are available: seeing an overview of physical activity, setting
and tracking goals, keeping food and activity logs, and interacting with friends.
Use of the website is free.
The Fitbit Classic tracked only steps taken, distance travelled, calories burned, activity
intensity, and sleep.
It was designed to be a small black and teal device that could be clipped discreetly onto
clothing and worn 24/7.
September 9, 2008, at TechCrunch50 during the "Mobile" session.
Fitbit received positive reactions during its panel from experts like Rafe Needleman,
Tim O'Reilly, and Evan Williams who cited its wearability, price point, and lack of
subscription fees.
Fitbit Ultra A new hardware upgrade was announced on October
3, 2011, called the Fitbit Ultra.
The new features included: an altimeter that measures elevation gain
in terms of floors, with one floor roughly equivalent to ten feet.
a digital clock visible on the device’s display
a stopwatch that can be used to time activities randomized “Chatter” messages show when
the Ultra is moved after sitting idle for a while, and there’s a custom field to write
in a personal “Greeting”.
new colors The Fitbit Ultra is powered by a small Lithium
polymer battery.
Fitbit One Announced on September 17, 2012, the Fitbit
One is an update to the Fitbit Ultra that uses a more vivid digital display, has a separate
clip and a separate charging cable and wireless sync dongle.
The Fitbit One and the Fitbit Zip were the first wireless activity trackers to sync using
Bluetooth 4.0 or Bluetooth SMART technology.
The wireless syncing is currently available on newer iOS and Android devices such as the
iPhone 4S and higher, iPad 3rd generation, iPod touch 5th generation, Samsung Galaxy
Note II and higher, Samsung Galaxy S III and higher, LG G2, HTC One, Moto X, and Nexus
4 or higher.
Fitbit One can record several daily activities, including but not limited to, number of steps
taken, distance travelled on foot, number of floors climbed, calories burned, vigorously
active minutes, sleep efficiency, delicate movements during sleep, number of wake-ups
during sleep, etc.
Although it has a good sensitivity but limited precision which means Fitbit one can accurately
detect a sedentary period and an active period, however it cannot estimate the number of steps
taken accurately.
Fitbit Zip
Announced on September 17, 2012, the Fitbit Zip is roughly the size of a quarter and tracks
only steps taken, distance travelled, and calories burned.
Compared to the other Fitbit trackers, the Zip is the first Fitbit product to include
a disposable battery.
It also has a lower price point than other Fitbit trackers.
Similar to the Fitbit One, it is able to sync its data wirelessly to supported mobile devices,
such as the iPhone 4S and higher, iPad 3rd generation, iPod touch 5th generation, Samsung
Galaxy Note II and higher, Samsung Galaxy S III and higher, LG G2, HTC One, Moto X,
and Nexus 4 or higher.
Fitbit Flex
In May 2013, Fitbit released the Fitbit Flex, which is a device that one wears on the wrist.
It tracks movement 24 hours a day, including sleep patterns.
It has a simple display of 5 LED lights which indicate the number of steps taken in a day,
and it vibrates to indicate that your goal has been reached.
The lights also indicate battery level.
The Fitbit Flex has almost all the same sync functions as the Fitbit One and Zip.
Compared to the One, the altimeter has been removed.
The Flex is also the first water-resistant tracker; it can be worn while showering and
swimming.
The Fitbit flex includes a specialized USB charger; the battery lasts 5-7 days, and it
takes 1-2 hours to charge.
Fitbit Force The Fitbit Force was announced on October
10, 2013.
It has an OLED display that shows time and daily activity.
The Force tracks a number of statistics in real-time, including steps taken, distance
traveled, calories burned, stairs climbed and active minutes throughout the day.
At night, the Force tracks sleep and can wake a user silently with a vibrating alarm.
On January 13, 2014 it was reported that an unconfirmed number of Fitbit customers who
have purchased the Force have complained about skin irritation after wearing the Force for
extended periods of time.
Fitbit stated on its website that the company consulted with medical professionals whose
assessments are that these irritations are most likely allergic reactions to nickel,
a component of the surgical-grade steel or the adhesives used to assemble the Fitbit
Force.
Fitbit, working with the Consumer Protection Safety Commission, recalled the Fitbit Force
on February 20, 2014.
On March 12, 2014 the Consumer Product Safety Commission made the recall official.
At that time it was revealed that The Fitbit Force had caused about 9,900 injuries.
Fitbit Aria In April 2012, Fitbit released a "Wi-Fi smart
scale" called the Fitbit Aria.
It recognizes users who are wearing Fitbit trackers and measures weight, body mass index
and percentage of body fat of the user.
It can keep track of eight individual users and updates information to fitbit.com automatically
via Wi-Fi network.
The information is also updated to the mobile apps.
Fitbit Mobile Apps In October 2011, just a few weeks after the
launch of the Fitbit Ultra, Fitbit launched a native app for the iPhone.
In March 2012 Fitbit launched a native app for Android.
Users could log their food, activities, water intake, and weight, as well as track their
fitness goals throughout the day even while offline.
Originally the iOS and Android apps could only retrieve data from the user's Fitbit
account, rather than connecting directly to the fitness tracker, but in September 2012
the Fitbit One and Zip were announced with Bluetooth support for syncing directly with
phones.
When the One and Zip were released, only newer iOS devices were supported, but in February
2013, Fitbit released an update that would allow wireless syncing from Fitbit One and
Zip devices to the Samsung Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II.
An update in May 2013 added support for the Galaxy S4, and on January 6, 2014, Fitbit
announced an update to the Android app adding support for many more devices including the
Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Moto X, HTC One, and LG G2.
On July 28, 2014, the official Windows Phone app was released.
Fitbit website Fitbit offers a free website that can be used
with or without the Fitbit Tracker.
Users have the ability to log their food, activities, weight, blood pressure, heart
rate, and glucose levels to track over time.
Users also have the ability to set daily and weekly goals for themselves for steps, calories
burned and consumed, and distance walked.
App gallery Fitbit.com dashboard also has the ability
for users to connect existing applications from other providers such as Loseit, Myfitnesspal,
and many others to have cumulative data collection in one location for a more complete personal
health report.
Food plan Fitbit allows users to set a food plan for
themselves on the website or the mobile app based on a weight goal.
The food plan tool has four different intensity settings users can choose from, and gives
a range of calorie consumption to aim for each day.
This number updates dynamically with any activities logged on the Fitbit website or synced with
the Fitbit Tracker.
It also gives a projected date for reaching the weight goal which updates as the user
logs their weight.
Badges On August 9, 2011, Fitbit launched badges
for various step and distance milestones.
Step badges could be earned based on how many steps a user took in a single day, while lifetime
distance badges gave users a badge based on how much distance they've logged since they
started using the Fitbit Tracker.
With the launch of Fitbit Ultra, they came out with new Ultra-only badges that can be
earned for floor climbing, and launched new step and distance badges that anyone could
earn.
Reception Awards
Fitbit has won numerous awards, including runner-up at TechCrunch50 in 2008 and CES
2009 Innovation honoree and best in the Health & Wellness category.
Privacy concerns Starting in June 2011, Fitbit was criticized
for its website's default activity sharing settings, which made users' manually entered
physical activities available for public viewing.
All users had the option to make their physical activity information private, but some users
were unaware that the information was public by default.
One specific issue which technology blogs made fun of was that some users were including
details about their sex lives in their daily exercise logs, and this information was by
default publicly available.
Fitbit responded to criticism by making all such data private by default and requesting
that search engines remove indexed user profile pages from their databases.
In April 2014, the company stated that selling companies tracking information on employees
health is becoming "one of the fastest growing parts of Fitbit's business."
See also Quantified Self
References
External links Official website