Fitbit is taking an optimistic view for the year, but its short-term performance is being impacted by investments it is making for the future.

The company said its net profit for the quarter to 2 April was $11 million, down from $48 million, on revenue of $505.4 million, up 50 per cent.

R&D and sales and marketing costs grew sharply (total operating expenses grew 171 per cent to $215 million), as the company brought new products to market.

“The strong growth and defensibility of our business continues to be powered by product innovation, the network effects of our community, our expanding global distribution, and investment in our brand,” James Park, CEO, said.

Fitbit launched Blaze and Alta in the first quarter, and has “exciting new products” planned for the Christmas holiday sales period. The new devices are already off to a strong start, making up 47 per cent of revenue (and the devices were not available for the full quarter).

Around 40 per cent of buyers were prior Fitbit users, with the “vast majority” trading up to the new devices from cheaper models.

Some 70 per cent of Q1 sales came from the US, followed by EMEA (15 per cent), APAC (11 per cent) and other Americas (4 per cent), although in growth terms APAC was ahead of EMEA, and all units grew faster than the US.

In total, the company sold 4.8 million devices in the quarter, up from 3.9 million in the prior-year period.

Bill Zerella, CFO, said that in the second quarter the company will “maintain our investment in brand building by supporting the penetration of Blaze and Alta into the market while investing more in international market development than in the US and frontloading engineering costs to support future new product introductions”.

While this will impact Q2, it “positions us to generate accelerated revenue and earnings growth in 2016 from what we have previously modelled, as both Blaze and Alta reach their stride”. The company said a significant share of its profit will come from holiday sales.

Fitbit also noted that after the quarter end, it signed a deal with Alibaba’s Tmall, extending its reach to “millions of Chinese consumers”.