Feature Fatigue Creeps As Apple Targets Fitbit

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — The Fitbit-led fitness wearable market has been growing worldwide by more than 65 percent a year, and Apple is looking to gain a piece of the action. It’s been highlighting the fitness functionalities in its forthcoming Series 2 Watch. But beware of “feature fatigue,” a term coined at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business in a 2006 study co-authored by marketing professor Roland Rust and now-Georgetown professors Deborah Thompson and Rebecca Hamilton. The concept is based on the notion that, while increasing the number of features increases a product’s appeal, too many features can make a product overwhelming.  

Computerworld nods to the term’s relevance in a review of Apple’s new watch: "Apple sought to clarify and simplify the purpose of buying a smartwatch, with hopes of getting the camel’s nose inside the tent so users can explore other functions.” Smith marketing professor P.K. Kannan says Apple’s play for the fitness wearable market increases the challenge to such coaxing.

“Fitbit’s advantage over Apple Watch is its single purpose,” Kannan says. “So, it is easier to appeal to consumers in this market with a professional and dedicated wearable.” A good comparison, he says, is professional photographers preferring a Nikon camera over the iPhone camera and its multiple functionalities. In this context, an iPhone owner becoming serious about his or her fitness goals would opt to buy a Fitbit rather than an Apple Watch. “Apple wants to prevent this,” Kannan says. “On the margin, they want to make the Apple Watch a better value proposition than Fitbit, or any other wearable, for this iPhone owner.”

To achieve this, Apple needs to improve the Apple Watch's image — hence its “focus on more fitness functionalities and health and its tie-up with Nike with its Nike-Plus watch,” Kannan says. “Apple’s success, here, depends on the consumer’s willingness to pay a higher price for the smartwatch and its additional functionalities over a fitness wearable and the value that is derived by linking fitness applications in the watch to the iPhone and creating synergies.”

Fitbits start at $60 with a $100 average price, while Apple Watch is $369 for aluminum, $549 for stainless steel and $1,229 for ceramic. “Surely, some consumers will buy in, while more price-sensitive consumers opt for cheaper wearables,” Kannan says. “But in any case, the market is growing significantly, and all players still will benefit."

Where Feature Fatigue Matters Most

Though feature fatigue is not a make-or-break factor for smartwatches, Rust says the concept still is a concern. "There is a generational shift that is altering the tolerance for more features, especially on software and technology products," he says. “Younger generations that grew up with complex high-tech products have an easier time with them.” 

But engineers can still go too far. “Google Glass was an example of a high-tech product that did many things, probably too many, and was difficult to use," he says. "As a result, it failed. Time will tell how quickly augmented reality products will become simple enough to be truly popular and widespread.”