Fitbit earnings beat expectations on strength of smartwatch sales

Fitbit is slowly righting its financial ship, courtesy of a successful push into smartwatch category. The wearable company reported a profit (when adjusted for items such as stock-based compensation) thanks to growing sales in the new category.

Total revenues rose slightly to $393.6 million in the third quarter compared with the same period last year. The company did report a loss this quarter under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). But it was rosier than in previous quarters and showed that Fitbit is moving in the right direction. Net losses narrowed considerably to $2.1 million from $113.4 million this time last year. A good deal of the company’s revenue is being driven by the shift to smartwatches, which now comprise around half of Fitbit’s total revenue.

It’s a gamble that’s finally starting to pay off for the company. Fitbit launched its first smartwatch in August of last year. The Ionic was the result of three high-profile acquisitions: Pebble, Coin and Vector. It was an ambitious product that found the company embracing the one bright spot in an otherwise stagnant wearables market.

What felt like an extremely expensive Hail Mary for the company was ultimately bogged down by poor reviews (including one on this site), thanks to poor industrial design, among other issues. In an interview with TechCrunch earlier this year, CEO James Park admitted that the Ionic ultimately wasn’t a mainstream device. “It was a performance-oriented product,” Park said at the time. “That audience is much smaller than a mass appeal device.”

Its followup, the Versa, however, address many of the biggest complaints plaguing the Ionic, and has clearly proven a hit for Fitbit.

This is the first time the company has posted adjusted profitability since Q3 of 2016. Forty-nine percent of the revenue on the 3.5 million wearables it sold this quarter, came courtesy of its smartwatches. Fitbit’s combined smartwatch sales currently put it in the number two position in the U.S., behind only Apple. It seems the company’s gamble is beginning to pay off.

Comments

Can you use the Tor Browser without Tor connection?

Tor Browser is a web browser specifically designed for privacy and anonymity. The web browser is a modified version of Firefox ESR that includes privacy tweaks and even some extensions to improve privacy and security on the Internet. What makes it special is that all connections go through several severs of the Tor network before they connect to the destination. Connections to Tor improve privacy when you are online but could you, in theory, run Tor Browser without Tor? Tor Browser without Tor would still provide better out-of-the-box privacy than Firefox ESR or Firefox Stable -- and other browsers. It is arguably the browser with the best default privacy configuration which might make it attractive to some users. Dropping Tor reduces privacy while online but that can be compensated, e.g. by connecting to a VPN or even chaining VPN services and it would speed things up significantly. Tor is the better choice when it comes to critical tasks, e.g. leaking documents or communication

12 Striking Dark Wallpaper Sites That Are Perfect for Your Desktop

The computer desktop is a personal space, and so you get to do it up with your choice of wallpapers. Desktop wallpapers reveal something about our natures. The kind of mood you are in. Science says that the choice of colors affect how we think and feel. Maybe also light or the absence of it. So how do you feel about dark desktop wallpapers? The obvious benefit of using dark backgrounds on your desktop is that all your icons and folders stand out in contrast. They make text easier to read. For instance, a dark motivational wallpaper spotlights the inspiring message scribbled on it. So let’s look at a few high-quality free dark-themed wallpapers for your desktop. 1. Wallpapers Craft The better wallpaper sites allow you to choose a wallpaper according to your screen resolution. They also have multiple categories for you to choose from. Wallpapers Craft could be on the shortlist. The catalog of dark wallpapers gives you 1000+ wallpapers to choose from. Sort them by the number of downl

The 5 Best Free IPTV Apps to Watch Live TV on Android

It’s easier than ever to watch on-demand TV shows and movies on your Android device. But what about live TV? Yes, there are services like Sling and PlayStation Vue. However, if you know where to look, you don’t need to subscribe to their expensive plans. You can use free IPTV instead; you just need an IPTV app and an IPTV source. What Is an IPTV App? IPTV apps are a bit like Kodi; they are empty shells that can’t stream any content without some user input. You have the responsibility for adding channels, playlists, and other sources. Typically, you cannot use the apps to watch Netflix, Hulu, or direct content from other third-party providers. Here, we’re not interested in the best on-demand streaming apps or places to watch TV online. We are only looking at the IPTV apps themselves. Specifically, we want to know what the best IPTV apps on Android are. 1. Lazy IPTV Our first pick is Lazy IPTV. It supports M3U playlists in open-view, ZIP, and GZ formats. The app can also read pl

BardTech

Search This Blog