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Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

reuters.com

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Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#341

Post by Bonooru »

kbenson wrote: post #333
lrem wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who's taken the internal trainings a few times by now: NOPE. Health data is scary-scary and no team wants to taint itself with it, unless it's the core of the product.

I hope that's true. I suspect that if it is, it only is until one or two teams does it successfully and monetizes that outcome. Then it's open season. That's a trend in computing. It's forever too hard, until all of a sudden it isn't for a very select few and they do amazing things[1]. Then a year or two later everyone is doing it. 1: Amazing is relative, and in this case may be less about customers getting something…

Health data is scary because of HIPAA (and the equivalent in non-US jurisdictions) not because it's inherently special or hard to make sense of.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#342

Post by markmark »

agloeregrets wrote: post #197
darkwater wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Because all I see out in the real world are Apple watches and Fit Bits. Which world? USA? Apple Watch doesn't work outside the Apple ecosystem, and Apple doesn't own the majority of the smartphone market. Stats for Europe, 2019 https://www.gizmochina.com/2019/10/21/smart-wearables-market... Apple was pretty stable, Fitbit lost half its market share (to Garmin, looks like), the rest was more or less stable.

I think they mean in the US (which obviously is not the whole world) Here in the US the iPhone is more than 50% market share (likely much higher, if you were to count hours of use rather than just raw devices. Many mid-range android users own one simply because it’s what the company told them to buy and they “just wanted a phone” while low end android devices lack battery life.) In the wearables market in the US, Gar…

Here in my part of Australia apple watches are pretty rare, but I see a lot of more general fitness trackers, and plenty of Garmin watches. When I was in SF for work recently it seemed like every second person had an apple watch.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#343

Post by Datenstrom »

I deleted everything Google and switched to iOS a few years ago so Google would have less of my data. Now they are going to get detailed location, activity, and sleep history for all of those years anyway. You really can't win can you.

I bet there is no option to download my data and nuke what they have before this happens either.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#344

Post by harikb »

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…

A watch that needs to be charged once in a few days is actually worse than one that could use a charge every night.

Charge at night is a habit that can easily be adjusted to our daily schedule. btw Apple watch does last a full day (I meant 16+ hrs) with decent use, unless you are playing music out of it all the time or obsessively checking time/calendar.

Only advantage of fitbit is that some models are easier to wear to sleep, particularly if you don't need to charge at night. However, even here, apple one is way ahead - the theater mode will make sure the super bright led at the bottom won't wake you up.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#345

Post by mattigames »

lrem wrote: post #310
Oblouk wrote: post #295

It will be interesting to see how Google uses the fitbit data. I could see them synchronizing a user's searches with their heartbeat information to try to gauge emotional response to topics.

As someone who's taken the internal trainings a few times by now: NOPE. Health data is scary-scary and no team wants to taint itself with it, unless it's the core of the product.

It seems if they buy fitbit is because they are no longer really "scared" of it, they aren't going to buy it just to keep fitbit a completely separate product.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#346

Post by mattigames »

oceanstone wrote: post #339
Oblouk wrote: post #295

It will be interesting to see how Google uses the fitbit data. I could see them synchronizing a user's searches with their heartbeat information to try to gauge emotional response to topics.

I'm pretty sure your proposal would cause every Fitbit user to switch to Bing

You may have a bit too much faith in people.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#347

Post by bordercases »

harikb wrote: post #336
Oblouk wrote: post #295

It will be interesting to see how Google uses the fitbit data. I could see them synchronizing a user's searches with their heartbeat information to try to gauge emotional response to topics.

It doesn't always have to be about linking everything to everything. They (Android) needs a decent watch/health device, one that Google has some control over. As it stands today, lack of 'Apple watch' support really kills their Pixel/Android sales.

Considering that Google's primary revenue is through advertising, and digital advertising's two main problems are (a) identity and (b) context, yes, it is still very much about linking, even if they need to prop up smaller projects or loss-leaders to collect the appropriate data (the secondary value proposition acts as a stepping stone to the first).

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#348

Post by solarkraft »

cordite wrote: post #329

Hmm, I don't suppose they will revive pebble. https://www.theverge.com/2017/2/22/14703108/fitbit-bought-pe...

Best watch I ever owned.

Huami Amazfit Bip comes close, but has no apps and needs touch input to function (no music control either). It does measure your pulse and last 30+ days, though.

I would easily pay hundreds of € for the best of those watches with an open source OS.

But instead manufacturers stick to touch operated OLED screen watches that last no more than a few days, with Android Wear ones often not even lasting 1.

Dude, why?

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#349

Post by MagnumPIG »

harikb wrote: post #336
Oblouk wrote: post #295

It will be interesting to see how Google uses the fitbit data. I could see them synchronizing a user's searches with their heartbeat information to try to gauge emotional response to topics.

It doesn't always have to be about linking everything to everything. They (Android) needs a decent watch/health device, one that Google has some control over. As it stands today, lack of 'Apple watch' support really kills their Pixel/Android sales.

Doesn't have to but could be. And with Alphabet being the giant it is, anything that reasonably could be happening probably is. And I find it a reasonable and scary possibility, even if it's not the primary reason for the acquisition.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#350

Post by remus »

Datenstrom wrote: post #343

I deleted everything Google and switched to iOS a few years ago so Google would have less of my data. Now they are going to get detailed location, activity, and sleep history for all of those years anyway. You really can't win can you. I bet there is no option to download my data and nuke what they have before this happens either.

> I bet there is no option to download my data and nuke what they have before this happens either.

Are you based in the EU? If so then you can do exactly that under GDPR.

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