Fitbit, a leader in the wearable fitness tracker market, has filed for an initial public offering, tagged at about $100 million.
Fitbit's device portfolio includes six trackers and a smart watch-tracker band. As of March 31, the eight-year-old company had sold 20.8 million devices and led the fitness activity tracker market with a 68 percent share as of 2014, according to a NPD Group report, which Fitbit cites in its IPO filing.
Revenue, as of 2014, was $745.4 million, representing a three-fold jump compared to a year prior, and in Q1 of 2015 revenue again tripled, hitting $336.8 million compared to $108.8 million a year ago, according to a Telegraph report.
"We believe that we have been one of the drivers of the growth of the wearable devices market, and that the future growth of this market represents a significant opportunity for us," states the IPO document, which describes the fitness tracking market as a $200 billion opportunity this year.
Overall the fitness wearables market is expected to skyrocket over the next several years. A recent Parks Associates study predicts global revenue of connected fitness trackers will rise from last year's more than $2 billion to $5.4 billion by 2019.
However, Fitbit acknowledges that despite potential growth, there are substantial challenges ahead for the fitness device market, including increasing competition from players such as Apple, which just began selling its first-ever wearable.
One report claims the Watch will prove to be a market innovator, spurring adoption as well as innovation, as the global wearable device market grows from 17 million shipments in 2013 to 187.2 million by 2020.
Yet Fitbit clearly sees expects greater competition as consumer demand and adoption increases.
"The connected health and fitness devices market is highly competitive … and we expect competition in our market to intensify in the future as new and existing competitors introduce new or enhanced products and services that are potentially more competitive than our products and services," the IPO says.
As FierceMobileHealthcare reported last week, sportwear titans Under Armour and Nike are making strides to grab their share of the burgeoning mHealth market, aiming to entice fitness-minded customers to embrace health apps and wearables. In addition, last October Nike forged a partnership with Apple to collaborate on wearables.
For more information:
- here's the IPO filing
- read the Telegraph report
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