Google Buys Fitbit

Google has acquired Fitbit and their 28 million users for a modest 2.1 billion dollars (still more than their GDRPGFPS fines LOL).

I don’t own a Fitbit, but I’m curious to know why they’re competing with the Apple watch when they were working on their own wrist attention destroying device.

Anyone here own a FitBit? Some are swearing off the device, saying they’re going to sell it and delete their account.

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Well that’s kinda a poor mans attitude.

What device was that?

I did read an article about glucose being able to be measured externally. And supposedly soon Apple watches will be able to measure that. Maybe google wants to expand into the wearable healthcare space… The smartwatch space is also a huge industry. In the US from 2017 to 2018 there was almost $5 Billion dollars in sales. And during that time Apple, Samsung and Fitbit were the leader in sales. https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/us/news/press-releases/2019/us-smartwatch-sales-see-strong-gains-according-to-new-npd-report/

Google also bought some Fossil R&D employees and some tech back in January. So it looks like they are going all in on this to take on the market leaders, Apple and Samsung. Google may have WearOS, but they themselves haven’t launched an in house made smart watch, even tho a Pixel Watch was rumored since last year. With their OS and the IP they bought from Fossil, and the hardware, knowledge and user base from FitBit, maybe Google has a stronger chance of tackling the smart watch space, then if they had went solo.

I own an Inspire HR. I don’t plan to throw it away, but I am disappointed. In the short term I don’t expect to see much change, but given Alphabet’s record of stewardship of Nest and other Google products I’m skeptical in the long term.

As far as privacy? I’m already too deep in Google’s ecosystem at the moment as it is, so pitching a fit about Fitbit would be…

I will definitely look for alternatives when buying another device.

Sniggers in pebble, I loved my pebble and Fitbit abandoned all of the users once they bought them out. Shutting down the servers and if it wasn’t for the community Pebble users would have nothing. The reaction Pebble users got from Fitbit and the Fitbit community I wouldn’t shed a tear if Google abandon them in a few months after they have scrapped all of the IP and leaves a husk on the side of the road.

They handled that really badly, indeed, but killing the company would only suck for the actual developers, the decision makers will just buy another yacht.

Ironically enough the API for the newer Fitbit watches is apparently heavily based on the “new” API Pebble was working on (according to an ex-colleague who used to write Pebble apps).

Oh well, guess I’ll just have to get a regular watch once my Pebble dies :frowning:

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Probably to tie in with their healthcare database stuff some how.

Also fitbit bought peble some time ago so google also get that if the tech is worth anything.

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