Fitbit’s financial rebound continues in first quarter
Fitbit’s financial rebound has continued during the first three months of this year. The company reported better than expected revenue, largely a result of strong smartwatch sales
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The number of devices sold increased 36% year-over-year to 2.9 million. This resulted in $271.9 million in revenue in Q1, beating Wall Street expectations of $259.7 million.
Most of this increase was a result of strong smartwatch sales. They increased 117% year-on-year to account for 42% of revenue. Interestingly, fitness trackers saw a modest 17% gain, reversing the category’s multi-year decline.
Fitbit says new devices introduced over the past year, Charge 3, Inspire, Inspire HR and Versa Lite Editio, represented two-thirds of revenue. The good news for customers is that the average selling price per device fell 19% over the year to $91. This is a result of the introduction of more affordable wearables such as Versa Lite and the Inspire range.
“New users are continuing to join the Fitbit platform with active users increasing in the first quarter, underscoring the effectiveness of our strategy to bring more users onto the Fitbit platform with the introduction of more accessible, affordable devices,” said cofounder and CEO James Park.
The company hopes to see more of the same for the rest of this year. Fitbit expects devices sold to increase in 2019 but average selling price to decline. Revenue is forecast to grow 1% to 4% for the full year and to be in the range of $1.52 billion to $1.58 billion.
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