Fitbit vs. Apple Watch: Who won Christmas?
In the battle of the fitness wearables, did Fitbit or Apple Watch win the Christmas consumer wars? The companies are not releasing sales figures, so it's impossible to know for sure. But anyone who thought Apple Watch would make Fitbit obsolete was clearly mistaken: the fitness tracker saw its iOS app shoot up 20 spots on the "free apps" list at Apple's App Store after the holiday.
The boost in app downloads indicates that many people were buying or receiving new Fitbit wristbands, which is the overall market leader in fitness tracking devices, Quartz reports.
Fitbit currently has a wide range of fitness tracking options available. For instance, the Fitbit Surge counts users' steps, sleep times, and heart rates, while also containing a GPS tracker and the ability to receive text notifications. The Fitbit Charge is cheaper -- $100 less -- stripping the device of its "smart" features and instead focusing on basic health tracking.
How Apple Watch fared during the Christmas shopping season remains to be seen. Since the device comes with Apple's iOS already installed, there is no way to directly compare each brand's downloads.