Google bought Fitbit to push more on smartwatches and wearables. Here’s what you need to know about Google’s acquisition of Fitbit
Fitbit acquired by Google
Now it’s official: Google buys Fitbit for 2.1 billion dollars.
The news was in the air for weeks, but only today, November 1, 2019, has been made official by both companies. The agreement should be concluded next year, and will obviously be submitted to the approval of regulators and shareholders.
Fitbit had long been looking for a buyer, and evidently considered the offer presented by Alphabet the best.
Why does Google buy Fitbit?
This acquisition of Google will allow the company to invest more in the Wear OS operating system and wearable devices in general.
To date, as we know, Wear OS is a good operating system for smartwatches, but with several limitations that have precluded success, leaving the field open to competition from Apple and other companies.
With the acquisition of Fitbit, however, things could change and Google could produce much more interesting and intelligent products to keep on our wrist, or at least we expect for the future.
The goal of the two companies, with this merger, is to combine Fitbit’s technical and hardware knowledge with the investment and scalability power offered by Google.
This will allow you to churn out many new products offered at an affordable price that will allow anyone to buy a powerful smartwatch, full of features and always keep your wrist to monitor your health. And in the meantime, Google will be able to collect some more data about us.
And user privacy?
Google has announced that users who will be using the company’s future wearable devices will be informed about what data will be collected and why, with a policy that wants to be completely transparent.
Big G also claims that personal data collected by Fitbit devices will never be sold to anyone , will not be used for targeted ads and the user will be given the opportunity to manage them, allowing them to review, move or delete their data.
We’ll see.
The only thing certain at the moment is that Fitbit has confirmed that its devices will continue to remain compatible with Android and iOS despite the acquisition by Google.