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Fitbit Debuts New Versa 2 Smartwatch and $10/Month 'Fitbit Premium' Service

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Fitbit has announced the Fitbit Versa 2 smartwatch, with an all-new design that shares a few similarities with the Apple Watch. Accompanying the watch is "Fitbit Premium," a new health and fitness subscription service that costs $10 per month and offers guidance and coaching to reach your fitness goals.

versa-2-image-2.jpg

The Versa 2 includes direct support for Amazon Alexa, which you can trigger by saying "Hey, Alexa" and then asking about the weather or any other smart assistant command phrase. There's also direct support for Spotify, as well as notifications for call, calendar, and texts from your connected smartphone.

Otherwise, the Versa 2 supports NFC payments, includes a heart rate sensor, and has water resistance up to 50 meters. The new smartwatch will support Fitbit's new Sleep Score feature, which factors in your daytime activities and sleep time to judge your overall sleep quality, as well as Smart Wake. This feature figures out the best time to wake you depending on your sleep habits.

fitbit-versa-2.jpg

For its subscription service, Fitbit Premium, Fitbit said it will provide a holistic view of your health that other health and fitness apps lack. This includes nine guided programs to help you get more sleep, wake up energized, increase your activity, manage nutrition, and create overall lasting healthy habits.

Programs include actionable coaching, daily tips and tricks, structured workout plans, relaxation tools, recipe suggestions, and educational content. Fitbit will launch additional activity, sleep and nutrition programs by the end of the year. The company plans to launch a one-to-one personal coaching service next year as well.

Fitbit Premium will debut in September and cost $9.99 per month or $79.99 per year. The Versa 2 is available for presale today for $199.95 and will launch on September 15.

Article Link: Fitbit Debuts New Versa 2 Smartwatch and $10/Month 'Fitbit Premium' Service
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2019/08/28/fitbit-versa-2-smartwatch/
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BootsWalking

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Feb 1, 2014
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For its subscription service, Fitbit Premium, Fitbit said it will provide a holistic view of your health that other health and fitness apps lack. This includes nine guided programs to help you get more sleep, wake up energized, increase your activity, manage nutrition, and create overall lasting healthy habits.

If Fitbit convinces you to spend $10/month on a watch subscription then you need holistic help with your spending habits.
 
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SoN1NjA

SoN1NjA

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Feb 3, 2016
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atmenterprises said:
Or I can continue with my Apple Watch and not pay an additional subscription.
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The subscription you're getting with Fitbit is not comparable to the stuff Apple is offering

Fitbit, like Nike who has Nike Training Club at $15 a month, is offering personalised training and editorial content for those who want to take fitness more seriously
 
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happyprozak

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Jun 21, 2008
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I'm very glad to see that the Fitbit logo is no longer on the face of the device, that looked simply terrible and cheap. This now looks like a decent watch. If I wanted to look outside the Apple ecosystem I would actually consider this watch.

The premium subscription service sounds like a hard sell though.

Is there any research on how much these fitness devices help people to maintain a regular exercise routine?

I feel like most people who don't exercise will be excited with their new toy and start exercising and then abandon it, the way the vast majority of people abandon diets.

I can understand how some of these devices may help people who are already dedicated to exercising but I question the utility of fitness and sleep tracking.
 
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SoN1NjA

SoN1NjA

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Rogifan said:
Don’t give Apple any ideas.
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I don't see how it's an issue

It's like the News+ subscription, you're getting stuff that you'd never get for free anyway, so at least it's an option for those who want to pay
 
FSMBP

FSMBP

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Jan 22, 2009
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SoN1NjA said:
I don't see how it's an issue

It's like the News+ subscription, you're getting stuff that you'd never get for free anyway, so at least it's an option for those who want to pay
Click to expand...

Incoming rant/unpopular opinion:

I see an issue...Look at iCloud. Apple is moving hard to up it's subscription revenue as they're stalling with new hardware. Eight years ago, Apple offered 5GB free. Now, almost a decade later, this hasn't budged. Why? They want perpetually subscription revenue.

Yes, Apple offers 50GB for $0.99/month (super cheap). But this is such a nickle & dime process (just like how they offered 16GB base storage for iPhones until a few years ago). If it's so cheap to offer 50GB for $0.99/month, why not increase standard iCloud to a tiny fraction, say 10GB (they can offset their cost by upping the iPhone price by $15 or whatever Apple pays). This would be better user-experience than the desperate notifications "Your iCloud storage is full. Pretty please upgrade to a subscription so that it will make it harder for you to jump to Andrioid" emails my mom gets weekly.
 
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lordofthereef

lordofthereef

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The premium service doesn't seem like it locks any previously/currently free services behind a paywall. I'm unsure why people are having a problem with this. It looks to be basically a life coach with a more robust information system.

I can't say that I would use it, but my point is, I wouldn't feel compelled to. I'd rather they have an option to pay more for something I personally wouldn't want anyway than just build it into the cost of the device for everyone. Maybe that's just me.
[doublepost=1567002706][/doublepost]
Mdracer said:
We will he known to future generations as the “Subscription Era”

They will talk of our insanity and how We loved to pay for nothing tangible.
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Kind of like how we talk about cable now lol.
 
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DoctorTech

DoctorTech

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Braderunner said:
I wonder when the subscription bubble will burst. :rolleyes:
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Judging from the comments on this thread and my own personal observations & experience, I think we are already at the point where consumer backlash is getting more vocal and people are going to start dropping these "services". In my opinion, it is OK to have a subscription for a "true" service like Apple Music, Amazon Music, or Netflix. I'm even OK with a subscription to something like Microsoft Office that I use daily and they keep adding features (some more useful than others).

But I have a growing disdain for games with in-app purchases and mediocre apps that want monthly fees. I recently let the "Blue-link" subscription on my Hyundai Elantra expire. It was a nice feature to have (remote lock/unlock, remote start, and geofencing, all from my phone) and I used it once in a while but not enough to justify the annual subscription fee.

I will be surprised if Fitbit's premium service brings in anywhere near as many subscribers as they forecasted when they decided to offer the "service"
 
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