That should be particularly worrying for Fitbit. The company launched its own similar capability called Cardio Fitness Score way back in 2016, a feature that tracks users' cardio fitness level trends, provides them with a rating, and gives them advice on how to make changes in their routine to improve their score.
Fitbit and Apple are far from the only companies to offer VO2 Max monitoring on their wearable devices — firms such as Garmin, Samsung, and Huawei do so as well. But Apple is undoubtedly one of Fitbit's biggest competitors in the United States, according to market research firm NPD Group, which reports that Apple leads the smartwatch market in the US followed by Samsung and Fitbit.
The US market is particularly important for Fitbit, as the company said in its most recent earnings report that sales in the US alone make up 50% of the company's revenue, representing a 3% drop year-over-year. (The company did, however, see a 36% year-over-year increase in devices sold in its fiscal first quarter, although the average selling price dropped by 19% since the company has launched less expensive devices).
The health context that Fitbit provides based on a user's cardio fitness level was one of the few features that differentiated Fitbit's devices from the Apple Watch, and it seems like that's about to change in a matter of months.
It's a critical move for Apple's smartwatch, which has excelled at serving up key health metrics and tracking a wide variety of exercise types, but hasn't done much when it comes to making sense of all that data. Giving users a snapshot of what this data means over time and providing insight into how to improve has been the missing piece of the puzzle the Apple Watch needed to be a true general-purpose fitness tracker — not just a smartwatch with a lot of fitness-tracking features.
The Apple Watch is gaining another capability Fitbit has already offered, too. The watchOS 6 and iOS 13 updates coming later this year will enable women to track their menstrual cycles both on the watch and in Apple's Health app for the iPhone. With this new tracking feature, women will be able to log symptoms like headaches and view the days in which their period occurred, as well as their fertile window. Users can choose to view multiple months at a time as well, and Apple's system will integrate with third-party period-tracking apps too.
Fitbit's app has supported the ability to monitor menstrual cycles since last spring when it launched its Versa smartwatch. In Fitbit's app, for example, the dashboard can tell female wearers when their next period is expected to come, and they can track their symptoms and mood within the app as well.