Fitbit bets its future on 'Premium' health and fitness subscription service
Fitbit's finally come to it senses: the days of trying to sell more fitness trackers are over.
Don't worry, Fitbit's still going to launch new trackers and smartwatches like the Versa 2. But rather than bet the farm on smartwatches and trackers that are increasingly steamrolled by the Apple Watch, Fitbit's reinventing itself as a personal health guardian, starting with a new health and subscription service called Fitbit Premium.
Touted as its most personalized health and fitness experience yet, Fitbit says its $10/month (or $80/year) Premium service uses over 10 years of insights gleaned from Fitbit data and various academic medical sources to provide "actionable guidance and coaching."
Translation: "Pay us and we'll help you understand the health and fitness data logged by your Fitbit device, and also suggest tailor-made programs, so you can live a healthier and happier life."
Having lots of data is meaningless if you don't know what to do with it. Fitbit Premium aims to change that.
When the service launches in September 2019, it'll offer a variety of "personalized" ways within the Fitbit app to reach your health and fitness goals.
For example, Premium provides detailed sleep guidance reports based on your sleeping data. A sleep score break down how long you sleep as well as well as the quality of the sleep you're getting. Additionally, Premium also shows you how your logged activities and sleep impact each other. There's also meditation exercises to help you fall asleep.
Another feature Premium users get are guided programs. Instead of a generic setup that gives you an overview of, say, how many calories an average person should eat and burn a day, Premium will offer more specific suggestions for things like activity, nutrition, and sleep based on your personal data.
Other Premium features include "dynamic workouts" that increase or decrease activity suggestions based on your feedback. They also include hundreds of Fitbit coach video or audio workouts; "advanced insights" that pull together tracked stats like steps, active minutes, heart rate, sleep, and then share ways to improve; custom challenge; and personalized health reports that you can bring to a doctor or trainer or nutritionist to provide a better overview of your health.
And if you really need an IRL push, starting with a pilot program later this year with an official launch in 2020, Premium can also help connect you to real certified health and wellness coaches who will be able to use your Fitbit data to create even more personalized workout programs to further motivate you to live healthier.
Just as an Apple Watch or Fitbit isn't a replacement for a doctor, Fitbit Premium isn't one either. Rather, it's a service to educate you about your health by interpreting the data and providing small motivations to help you maintain it.
Fitbit Premium is one way to hold people accountable for their health. But it's only as useful to the extent that you follow the recommendations. If you do nothing, naturally, you'll get nothing.
"Health belongs to everyone,” James Park, Fitbit's CEO and co-founder, told press during a pre-launch event. "Everyone should have access to the support, the tools, the motivation, and the guidance to really become healthier."
With Fitbit Premium, Fitbit's hoping to become your support, tools, motivation, and guidance. And assuming people sign up, it's also going to be a nice source of recurring revenue for a company that's seen better days.
Raymond Wong is Mashable's Senior Tech Correspondent. He reviews gadgets and tech toys and analyzes the tech industry. Raymond's also a bit of a camera geek, gamer, and fine chocolate lover. Before arriving at Mashable, he was the Deputy Editor of NBC Universal's tech publication DVICE. His writing has appeared on G4TV, BGR, Yahoo and Ubergizmo, to name a few. You can follow Raymond on Twitter @raywongy or Instagram @sourlemons.
