Dear Mr. Berko: I’m going to buy my wife a $225 Fitbit watch for Christmas. I’m also looking at the stock, which sells for about $5 a share. Do you think buying 1,000 shares of the stock would be a good investment?
— CL, Springfield, Ill.
Dear CL: Fitbit (FIT-$5.30), during the summer of 2015, traded at over $50 a share! And the number of citizens who’d buy its products suggests that too many American consumers need a vaccine for stupidity. Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank, mindful of this folly, hurriedly took FIT public at $20 a share before the vaccine could be distributed to Walgreens and CVS. Fitbits — like Tamagotchi, the Pet Rock, Silly Bandz, Elmo and Doggles — join the parade of useless products that keep the American masses entertained.
FIT, hoping to post $1.5 billion in revenues this year, designs, manufactures and peddles wearable (clip-based or on one’s wrist) fitness-tracking devices. These sleek-looking gadgets, with matching software, measure and record how many steps you have taken, the number of calories you have burned and the distance you may have walked or jogged. Some Fitbits also monitor one’s sleep duration, sleep quality and heart rate. Now that you have this health data, what are you supposed to do with it?
Fitbits retail for $99 and higher. A neighbor told me she bought a Fitbit Blaze for $200. It has wireless syncing to hundreds of mobile devices, can play music, has email and texting capabilities, and can be connected to a GPS system. Fitbits’ batteries last long, and the devices come in stylish designs and colors. These gizmos also retail in Europe, Latin America and Asia, suggesting that we’re not the only gullible consumers on the planet.
