Should Apple be eyeing Fitbit?

On March 6th, 2019, Fitbit refreshed its product line of fitness trackers. The company has been a major contender in the wearable space, but it faces strong competition from other large tech giants, including smartwatch leader Apple. Despite forecasting sales below analysts’ Q1 predictions, however, Fitbit may not be in a bad position.

Apple is purportedly looking to implement sleep technology into the Apple Watch by 2020. Fitbit, on the other hand, is already strategically positioned in the market: the company has been been directly targeting sleep stage tracking with its patent portfolio since before 2016 and has been implementing the technology in its devices since 2017. Apple, conversely, has not been very active in the Consumer Sleep patent sector at all. What little activity there is primarily focuses on smart alarm technology for its wearables. How Apple plans to implement sleep tracking technology with companies like Fitbit reserving a huge share of the Consumer Sleep patent sector remains to be seen.