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Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

reuters.com

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Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#251

Post by e40 »

insulanus wrote: post #200
zamalek wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you own a Fitbit (I do), it's great news. Fitbit have done an unmatched job of destroying the device already. I was honestly considering buying a different device already. They don't support Spotify, or really any music app except the one (which I don't remember). Their subscription service provides no real value at all. Their devices track heart rate and nothing else. They simply don't innovate at all.

Oh man. I'm definitely on both sides of the fence. After Fitbit bought Pebble, they made the ecosystem poorer. The Pebble tech team was stronger than the team that absorbed them. Fitbit customer service is excellent, but their warranty is bad, and their build quality seems poor. My Fitbit Ionic (about $300) stopped working one month after the 12 month warranty ran out, and they offered me a 20% discount on my next pu…

A friend, who got me interested in the devices, had the same issue. His died. Mine, I stopped using, when it detected I was asleep for 3 hours one night and I was definitely up and using my phone for the entire time. The only reason I got it was to monitor my sleep. It is apparently useless for that.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#252

Post by olliej »

ip26 wrote: post #136
not2b wrote: post #91

Very bad news for anyone who has a Fitbit device. Google tends to destroy any "smart" devices they acquire; first they tie it more closely to their ecosystem, too much for comfort, then they remove features, then they get bored and neglect it, then you have a brick.

Hoping this doesn't happen with the Nest Thermostat. The good news is the install base is huge, so it's not like they can just quietly brick them and have no one notice.

They already have started removing features and functionality, which is similar to bricking

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#253

Post by JakeTheAndroid »

breck wrote: post #176
zamalek wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you own a Fitbit (I do), it's great news. Fitbit have done an unmatched job of destroying the device already. I was honestly considering buying a different device already. They don't support Spotify, or really any music app except the one (which I don't remember). Their subscription service provides no real value at all. Their devices track heart rate and nothing else. They simply don't innovate at all.

This isn’t correct. Their devices track sleep (amongst other things beyond heart rate), which IMO is the #1 killer app. I have a Versa 2. They support Pandora. I have not tried the subscription yet but plan to. I definitely would like more innovation too, but IMO it’s still the best in class. I switched from the Band after MS discontinued. I had (and returned) an Apple Watch because of lack of good sleep tracking.

Yeah, sleep tracking is really the only thing I use mine for to get a decent idea of my cycles and at least understand how long I was sleeping. It's not perfect, but for the price and form factor it's doing an amazing job.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#254

Post by [deleted] »

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #234
zamalek wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you own a Fitbit (I do), it's great news. Fitbit have done an unmatched job of destroying the device already. I was honestly considering buying a different device already. They don't support Spotify, or really any music app except the one (which I don't remember). Their subscription service provides no real value at all. Their devices track heart rate and nothing else. They simply don't innovate at all.

My fitbit stopped charging 3 months after I bought it. It's been collecting dust in the drawer since.

[deleted]

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#255

Post by bonestamp2 »

VectorLock wrote: post #235
not2b wrote: post #91

Very bad news for anyone who has a Fitbit device. Google tends to destroy any "smart" devices they acquire; first they tie it more closely to their ecosystem, too much for comfort, then they remove features, then they get bored and neglect it, then you have a brick.

Fitbit has done a pretty good job of that already. See the spO2 sensor on the Charge 3 that has been inaccessible since the device launched.

Apple has allegedly had spO2 monitoring capability on Apple Watch for years too without making that function available in production. I wonder if there's a similar reason for this. I mean, I can buy a $12 spO2 monitor on Amazon, and most clinics seem to use that exact model... why not let my fitness device do it too?

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#256

Post by cosmic_ape »

colechristensen wrote: post #238

Is anyone aware of body-metric-tracking devices that natively allow you to collect your own data directly from the device? (i.e. no clouds, subscriptions, or preferably smartphone apps)

Apple Health seems to allow exporting all the data as a file, including individual measurements from the watch (those come every second some times). Haven't tried it yet though.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#257

Post by tus88 »

zamalek wrote: post #141
not2b wrote: post #91

Very bad news for anyone who has a Fitbit device. Google tends to destroy any "smart" devices they acquire; first they tie it more closely to their ecosystem, too much for comfort, then they remove features, then they get bored and neglect it, then you have a brick.

If you own a Fitbit (I do), it's great news. Fitbit have done an unmatched job of destroying the device already. I was honestly considering buying a different device already. They don't support Spotify, or really any music app except the one (which I don't remember). Their subscription service provides no real value at all. Their devices track heart rate and nothing else. They simply don't innovate at all.

So why is it great if Google destroys it even further? If only by eradicating what privacy you might have left on the device.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#258

Post by derjames »

CydeWeys wrote: post #113
aries1980 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is not much "feature" in a Fitbit. You can't even correct simple numeric values of an exercise, such as the ran distance or the bodyfat percentage of the scale reading.

I have a Garmin fitness watch, and I mainly use it to tell the time, daily step count, and the distance/pace/heart rate/duration during runs and bike rides. I do sync the resultant recorded activities to Strava but frankly that's not very important to me. And this is enough to justify the device for me. It only cost $150 or so, lasts much longer than a year, and earns its keep in useful functionality.

I am doing something similar with a Timex IQ+. I use it for telling the time and to tell me roughly my activity level. I don't even bother to sync it. I recently changed the battery for the first time after using it for 8 months. I bought it because just looks like a conventional watch and because I found the design to be attractive (my taste)

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#259

Post by standardUser »

toasterlovin wrote: post #107
tempsy wrote: post #70

I don't really get what Fitbit offers to Google...seems like they could easily build from scratch what Fitbit currently offers. And the Fitbit brand doesn't seem particularly strong right now...

> And the Fitbit brand doesn't seem particularly strong right now... It's the only wearable brand other than Apple Watch that has any traction whatsoever with consumers.

Most of the most active people I know like Garmin and have a very low opinion of FitBit. They view FitBit as the beginner fitness tracker.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#260

Post by lozaning »

philliphaydon wrote: post #69

Ah nooo please. Anyone but google. I love my Fitbit charge 3 and was thinking about replacing my Fitbit scale because my original model just died after 6 years. If google is going to buy Fitbit then I’m out.

There's much cheaper wifi scales out there that sync into the fitbit app. I've got a $40 weight gurus ones, works great.
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