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Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

reuters.com

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Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#321

Post by scarface74 »

fragmede wrote: post #286
AgloeDreams wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile try one, then try an older Apple watch, the Fitbit is straight up trash (with nicer battery life.) Fitbit UX is bad, and requires tons of interaction between the phone and watch and is remarkably hard to use, even switching watch faces requires digging multiple screens into the fitbit app and a 30+ second sync period, on the Apple watch this is known as 'swiping right' or at worst, holding down and tapping…

> with nicer battery life Don't discount this feature on a fitness tracker. The most recent Apple Watches are better in this respect compared to the first one, but the battery life is still measured in hours, rather than days. The UX for a Fitbit as a smartwatch is honestly horrible. The Pebble acquihire prioritized watch apps, in (what I see as) a belief that watch apps are necessary to compete with Apple. Resources…

Resources would be far better spend improving the first-party UX and apps first, before opening up the ecosystem to outside developers.

The same could have been (rightfully) said about the Apple Watch....

The iPhone dev kit trailed far behind the initial iPhone launch.

The iPhone launched July 2007. The dev kit was released in April 2008. The App store launched around July 2008

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#322

Post by fluidcruft »

AgloeDreams wrote: post #90
atlasunshrugged wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something definitely has been off at Fitbit - I had their first device and then after swearing off smartwatches got a new Fitbit for Christmas. 10 months later I'm on my 3rd watch from them - the first one stopped taking a charge after a few months, the second one the screen went out in a week or two. I'm hoping the third time is the charm

Meanwhile try one, then try an older Apple watch, the Fitbit is straight up trash (with nicer battery life.) Fitbit UX is bad, and requires tons of interaction between the phone and watch and is remarkably hard to use, even switching watch faces requires digging multiple screens into the fitbit app and a 30+ second sync period, on the Apple watch this is known as 'swiping right' or at worst, holding down and tapping…

Well I've had a Versa for over a year and it's been great. Basically it's a fitbit that also shows notifications from my phone. It has some simple apps that you can use for workouts or some other single-use trivial things.

The configuration part of the fitbit companion app is frustrating. But that's where the UI belongs and where it should be fixed. I have zero interest in a watch that's an even smaller and more frustrating phone UI.

Mostly I like only having to charge my watch every 3-4 days because it's long enough to forget about needing to charge it.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#323

Post by passivepinetree »

ignoramous wrote: post #16

> Fitbits’ stock shot up almost 30 percent after the first rumors surfaced. In recent months, the company’s stock often traded below $3, down from close to $48 shortly after its IPO in 2015. Today, after the announcement, it went up to around $5.20. Good lord, must the acquisition offer feel like a relief? Surely, Fitbit wouldn't do a Groupon now. The article fails to mention Fossil, but Google recently did acquire t…

You may not have read that far down, but the article mentions exactly what you did regarding Fossil:

> Fitbit would not be the first deal that Google would be carrying out in the wearables space. Fossil Group Inc said in January it would sell its intellectual property related to smartwatch technology under development to Google for $40 million. Google’s plans for these assets are not clear.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#324

Post by lrem »

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)

I'm happy with my Pebble Time, gathering data via Gadgetbridge. Well, that technically is a smartphone app, but an open source one that I don't mind.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#326

Post by Jnr »

hobo_mark wrote: post #58
atlasunshrugged wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something definitely has been off at Fitbit - I had their first device and then after swearing off smartwatches got a new Fitbit for Christmas. 10 months later I'm on my 3rd watch from them - the first one stopped taking a charge after a few months, the second one the screen went out in a week or two. I'm hoping the third time is the charm

Meanwhile my Pebble2 still holds a charge for a week after years or careless daily use...

My Pebble Time Steel from Kickstarter still works nicely and looks like new (I have changed the straps though). I take it swimming, it has been dropped multiple times, it has had some hard knocks but the metal frame protects the glass and it seems indestructible. I am also surprised that battery charge still holds almost a week.

They did have great potential but apparently consumers didn't agree. And then they sold their IP to Fitbit. :(

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