The nascent, but fast-growing, Indian wearables market is slowly coming to the fore. After the recent launches of fitness bands from Micromax, Xiaomi and Lycos, it is now the turn of Fitbit, the global no.1 in fitness bands (see our latest report: Global Fitness Band Vendor Marketshare: Q1 2015).

Fitbit brings in a portfolio of devices at relatively competitive wholesale (trade) prices to the Indian market, to include Fitbit Zip (INR 3,200 / US$50), Fitbit One (INR 5,592 / US$87), Fitbit Flex (INR 5,592 / US$87), Fitbit Charge (INR 7,992 / US$124), Fitbit Aria (INR 7,992 / US$124), Fitbit Charge HR (INR 10,392 / US$162) and Fitbit Surge (INR 15992 / US$249).

For distribution, the devices will first be available online via Amazon.in, starting July 3, 2015.  It plans to take the offline route later, to coincide with Diwali in November 2015, the major Indian shopping season / festival.

With India among the fastest-growing markets for health and fitness products, Fitbit faces intense competition from the likes of Xiaomi, Jawbone, etc. in the largest wearables subcategory of fitness bands (as reported in our latest Wearables forecast by device-type here).

And, of course, the fitness band category also runs the risk of being cannibalized to an extent by smartwatches, especially after the relative launch-success of Apple Watch in Q2 2015.