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Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

reuters.com

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Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#441

Post by ChrisCinelli »

krick wrote: post #405

Ok, are there any wearables left that can be trusted with personal data? I want to use it to track my own activity/heartrate, not to be used and tracked by somebody else for their shady purposes.

What are you afraid of? I would be more worried about the data in your phone. There is more damage to be made with GPS location and all the other private data.

I doubt that knowing what time you sleep, when you exercise, and your hearth rate can add a lot more risks. Maybe the hearth rate combined with what you are doing on your phone can be used to measure the effect of what you are reading or watching...

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#442

Post by ChrisCinelli »

all_blue_chucks wrote: post #389

Fitbit bought and killed cool wearables like Pebble and Vector. If this deal goes through they will probably kill WearOS as well. Fitbit: the grim reaper of wearables.

I think that Fitbit provided them an exit. Is anybody of those company still working for Fitbit? I doubt it...

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#443

Post by dblock »

whitebread wrote: post #133
dblock wrote: post #97

Fitbit is damaged goods. Just read https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Ionic/Would-you-buy-Fitbit-I... - I own one of these along with many unsatisfied customers. Google is buying technical debt.

The Ionic was a misstep, but damning the entire brand because of one bad product feels like painting with too broad a brush. Like another user said, I love my Versa. Liked but didn't love the Blaze when I had that. I'll be searching for a wearable from a different company that is comparable to the Versa if this deal goes through.

Same customer support though.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#444

Post by baroffoos »

ChrisCinelli wrote: post #433

I do not understand why somebody would buy a Fitbit... I would never buy one. All the ones I owned were gifts. All the ones I owned broke in a way that showed a flawed process and engineering. Their Bluetooth stack is sooo broken. The devices cannot sync if there are other Bluetooth devices around or only some very specific phones are supported. Their forums are FULL of complains for the hardware breaking (ex: https:…

> nevertheless people still buy them.

Because most people do not research a product before buying it. They just go to the store and pick the one with the nicest box and price.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#445

Post by baroffoos »

krick wrote: post #405

Ok, are there any wearables left that can be trusted with personal data? I want to use it to track my own activity/heartrate, not to be used and tracked by somebody else for their shady purposes.

There is an open source android app called Gadget Bridge which supports a bunch of wearable devices and doesn't phone home to the OEMs servers. I have been using that on my pebble watch for years now.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#446

Post by baroffoos »

andromeduck wrote: post #384
leevlad wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One can only dream. It was so far ahead of its time, and I still consider it superior to any smartwatch out on the market. I have mine from 5 years ago that still works great. We need more products like this.

Apple watch is better for most people IMO. The health features, notifications, apps and other integration at least. Max battery life isn't as great but charging once a day isn't so bad for the much better data.

Pebble didn't really get a chance to do health properly. They were making massive leaps in progress with each release and had all of these features before anyone else did.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#447

Post by skinnymuch »

MaximumMadness wrote: post #3

Every person I've talked to over at Fitbit (pre-this news) has been down on the company. Sounds like they've had trouble effectively scaling software/new hardware to the level of success that the initial device had. While this could easily be another money sink for Google as they attempt to figure out some sort of Android wearable, it also has the potential to be an Instagram level-acquisition. Non-Apple wearables se…

I know your intent was to just say the acquisition could be huge. But I want to say anyway, in terms of ROI and being a blockbuster deal (returns being 11 or 12 figures), Instagram is possibly the best acquisition of all time. Booking.com is arguable though with Instagram still growing it takes the lead going into 2020.

And Naspers investing into Tencent and Softbank into Alibaba are up there too, though they’re just big minority stake investments.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#448

Post by rodgerd »

criddell wrote: post #378
harikb wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They can't even get messaging right and that's way simpler. I doubt they can get health right.

They don't want to get health right. They want to get surveillance capitalism right.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#449

Post by trimbo »

skinnymuch wrote: post #447
MaximumMadness wrote: post #3

Every person I've talked to over at Fitbit (pre-this news) has been down on the company. Sounds like they've had trouble effectively scaling software/new hardware to the level of success that the initial device had. While this could easily be another money sink for Google as they attempt to figure out some sort of Android wearable, it also has the potential to be an Instagram level-acquisition. Non-Apple wearables se…

I know your intent was to just say the acquisition could be huge. But I want to say anyway, in terms of ROI and being a blockbuster deal (returns being 11 or 12 figures), Instagram is possibly the best acquisition of all time. Booking.com is arguable though with Instagram still growing it takes the lead going into 2020. And Naspers investing into Tencent and Softbank into Alibaba are up there too, though they’re just…

> Instagram is possibly the best acquisition of all time

I vote for NeXT

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#450

Post by bransonf »

ChrisCinelli wrote: post #441
krick wrote: post #405

Ok, are there any wearables left that can be trusted with personal data? I want to use it to track my own activity/heartrate, not to be used and tracked by somebody else for their shady purposes.

What are you afraid of? I would be more worried about the data in your phone. There is more damage to be made with GPS location and all the other private data. I doubt that knowing what time you sleep, when you exercise, and your hearth rate can add a lot more risks. Maybe the hearth rate combined with what you are doing on your phone can be used to measure the effect of what you are reading or watching...

Well, this data would been incredibly valuable to insurance companies. If you could tie specific demographic information (which Google has mastered) to sleep and exercise routines, this could be used in a risk model.

I'm fairly confident this will eventually happen, as I had a professor explain to me that he wears a fitness tracker in exchange for a premium reduction. I think the incentive of the insurance company is that they found individuals wearing these devices to be more conscientious of their own health (I don't think they request any data at this point).

Even if you don't partake, these risk models will certainly generalize your demographic to their set of data.

From the Ad-revenue perspective, it's easy to see how they could target you for selling melatonin if your sleep pattern supports it. Or, maybe you're active, which brings about plenty of products to target you for.

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