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[tim00mike]

Fitbit co-founder: ‘We lead and others follow’ – here's where Fitbit's heading next

https://www.wareable.com/fitbit/eric-friedman-interview-1

And even as the company’s hardware numbers are eclipsed by huge competitors, Friedman says that Fitbit is still a leader – and others copy.

“There's a quote that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. The competition has been flattering the heck out of Fitbit for the last several years. We recognise that people are looking to us for thought leadership, but then quickly copy us,” Friedman said.

And Friedman says that even Apple, which has come to dominate the smartwatch market, followed Fitbit’s lead:

“When smartwatches first came onto the scene, most of them took a phone and put it on the wrist. It took a couple years, but everyone from Apple to Samsung went, 'oh actually Fitbit on this health and wellness thing, they've got something,'" he said.

“They radically pivoted and have been following us. We take it as a compliment.”

This week we’ve seen a new Fitbit patent for a smart ring that would use a different types of heart rate and blood oxygen detection than we’ve seen on Fitbit’s wrist wearables. And the company has already stated its interest in launching blood pressure and glucose monitoring features.

“A lot of very smart researchers have looked at things like pulse arrival time, pulse wave velocity, a number of those metrics, trying to tie it back to blood pressure. There's often been smoke, but no one's actually found the fire.”

“We're working on our own kind of approaches,” Friedman said.