But the people who buy them ignore the privacy concerns, either out of apathy or because one leak of private data after another has made consumers feel that there isn't much they can do to protect themselves.Ī subscription like Amazon Halo or Fitbit Premium is supposed to be a way for discerning consumers to pay for holistic health reports and workout routines with the added promise that the data won't be shared with anyone.īut rational or not, plenty of people don't trust Amazon or Google with their personal info, regardless of their promises to protect it. Yes, these cheap trackers likely sell your location and health data to advertisers to subsidize the low cost. Today, you can get some pretty incredible upside with a sub-$100 tracker like the Xiaomi Mi Band 7 or Amazfit Band 7, which makes it hard for a subscription-based tracker like the Amazon Halo View to compete. The Fitbit Charge 5 (Image credit: Christine Persaud / Android Central)

Should a fitness tracker be cheap or not? It's why so many other fitness trackers from Fitbit, Amazfit, and others have imitated the squircle design over the years.īut outside of the Apple fanatic crowd, it seems that people have gone back to retro watches because style is more important to them than whatever a fitness band with a knock-off design, second-tier UI, and a few health sensors can bring to the table. IPhone owners may wear the Apple Watch to get notifications, but also because they see it as a stylish status symbol. Meanwhile, basic non-smartwatch sales are on the rise (17% to 36%). Looking at 2022 wearable sales compared to 2020, the percentage of smartwatch sales rose from 33% to 47%, while fitness trackers dipped from 50% to 18% overall (or 39% less than in 2021). In light of that, it's no surprise that more people buy smartwatches than fitness trackers these days. There's no denying that Apple has gained an insane stranglehold on the wearable market since 2020.

People are buying expensive watches - smart or dumb - over cheap fitness bands

Amazon fit watch