The short and sweet version:
Please integrate with Healthkit. You are only about 50% useful to me and thousands of others without this critical feature. We have spent thousands on our apple products, and are not about to jump ship for a $145 health tracker.
The more in-depth preachy tough love version:
Whatever you are inhaling must be good stuff if you think you can get away with not integrating your data with Healthkit and ignoring thousands of your IOS customers .
Take me for example. I'm on my 5th fitbit. Sounds good but I paid for only one Fitbit HR three years ago. Your product keeps dying within the extended warranty period so I keep getting new ones for free.
This is not a complaint because I just got a Fitbit Charge 2 today; but, The only reason I got one was because it was free. If I had to pay; it would have been an apple watch. The Charge 2 replacement was not only free; I got $.41 cents back?!
I would never buy another product that does not fit into my Apple ecosystem. I don't know what you were/are thinking. You are small fish compared to Apple. You produce a reasonably good product, and you were one of the first to market with a decent design; but, you are no Apple replacement. Neither are you an Apple competitor. You are only useful because your app runs on my iPhone. If there was no Fitbit app on the iPhone; there would be no Fitbit on my wrist right now regardless of the price. Even if it was free. I don't want a fashion accessory, and I stopped wearing watches years ago.
Regarding your "strategic" alliance with Android. Anyone I know who cares about security, or privacy is unwilling to switch an Apple with any Android flavor/make. Android is like a swiss cheese when it comes to security. Android boasts a lot of devices because phone carriers give them away for free. You can buy an Android trackphone with one month of free service included for $59.00 and then you are on the hook for mandatory activation every 3 months even if you never use it. Android is a cash cow for the carriers, but the carriers do not support Android devices. They are just bait for conning people into contracts. They don't spend money on developing or supporting something that has already served it's purpose. Once you understand this fact, you are crazy if you put your health data, Banking, personal photos, personal emails, Smarthome appliances, etc on a device that any script-kiddy can hack in 30 minutes or less.
Apple is a hardware manufacturer; they have software because it's necessary to have to make the hardware useful. They spend money and resources on that software because without it the hardware is just an expensive paperweight. The more optimized the software, the more desirable the hardware. it's a vicious circle. You notice that the crown jewels of Apple software are all free. MacOs, IOS, TvOS, WatchOS are all freely given, supported, and maintained for a really long time for free. Yet, you have opted to hitch your wagon to the Android train with it's swiss cheese security, and fragmented market, while you are purposely ignoring Apple. Not smart. Nobody is buying your "Waiting for healthkit to mature" one liner. My bluetooth scale, and my blood pressure cuff work just fine. You are the one who needs to get with the program. The omission of Healthkit integration is inexcusable.
Your excuse can only be either temporary insanity or you were high when you made the decision. You realize that the second Apple makes a $199 health watch you are going to be a fond memory for tens of thousands of your customers (me included) when their fitbit inevitably bites the dust. I've gone though 5 fitbits in over 3 years; you do the math for your life expectancy if the calamity of a cheap Apple health watch happens and you are still not part of the ecosystem.
You have value to me because you integrate with my iPhone. Right now, you are the only reliable game in town for less than $200; but, for how long? I've been involved in the tech industry since 1990. I've seen tons of companies with stupid marketing departments and dumb management make strategically wrong decisions at the worst possible time that resulted in their demise. You know any of these names? Data General, Control Data, Amiga, C-Cube, Next, Amdahl, Pyramid, Priam, Commodore, ATI, ... the list can go on forever. Some of the really big ones managed to only mangle themselves and survived as mere shadows of their formers selves. HP? IBM? Remember Blackberry? Remember Nokia phones? Remember those in their heyday? They were truly huge and now they are not. You on the other hand are not large enough to survive a bout of terminal imbecilitus.
The above-mentioned were all companies with great products that made a few poor decisions at critical junctions. When they realized they had messed up; they stayed the course and imploded. Were they crazy? Was it ego? Who knows. If you are not careful your name will be on this list in the near future. Then someone would add to the litany and say remember the Fitbit?
Please consider this a friendly intervention; knock it off and listen to the market and your customers. I like your product and would like to continue being a customer if you don't insist on committing corporate suicide.
Ben.
P.S. I tried for put this in feature request; but, it just kept saying correct the error and wouldn't let me post it. Fitbit's version of ->/dev/null i guess. I hope someone in management reads this and snaps out of it.
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