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Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

reuters.com

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Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#471

Post by Matthias247 »

amatecha wrote: post #411

Still bitter that Fitbit bought Pebble and did apparently nothing worthwhile with the tech or the team they acquired. I loved my Pebble OG and kept searching for a nice secondhand Pebble Time Steel to upgrade to -- until the Fitbit acquisition where we learned the Pebble ecosystem was unfortunately doomed. I've since "upgraded" to an Apple Watch S4, but to be honest it's really just a "side-grade" as there are major…

I thought their new watch OS (e.g. used in the Versa) is based on the Pebble tech? A least it has very similar features (scriptable via Javascript).

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#472

Post by dehrmann »

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…

Remember the Jawbone Up? It got popular with early adopters around 2013, the same time Fitbit released their first on-wrist tracker. Everyone I know who had an Up lost interest within six months. Sure, the hardware was flaky, but the novelty wore off. I'm guessing the same thing happened with Fitbit, but they somehow powered through people losing interest with a bigger product lineup and more features. But still, the novelty wore off.

Funny enough, I have an Aria scale because that's a meaningful metric for me to track long-term.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#473

Post by mattrp »

notatoad wrote: post #355
Sysreq1 wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you say, “That’s a bingo!” Google isn’t buying Fitbit to improve Fitbit, Google is acquiring a company to gain their experience in the wearables space to compete with Apple and Samsung. I suspect Google thinks AppleWatch is helping them erode the Android market share and/or preventing switchers from moving to Pixel.

>Google isn’t buying Fitbit to improve Fitbit, Google is acquiring a company to gain their experience in the wearables space I imagine they're also interested simply as a defensive move: if they don't buy fitbit, maybe samsung or apple does.

I’m surprised google can buy anything at this point and not foul up on anti trust... but I guess if there’s a non business they could buy this would be it. But one has to wonder how this played out because there rationale is about as terrible as Apple buying beats — I haven’t seen a Fitbit in ages but I do see Apple watches and on people who probably are carrying around two grand in Apple products when three years ago weren’t even wearing a Casio much less a Fitbit. With this and the hyped supremacy post, one has to wonder if they’re worried abut the pace of things over there in Mountain View..

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#474

Post by akulbe »

I've been wanting to get some kind of fitness tracker to go with my Pixel 3XL, but it seems like nothing can touch the Apple Watch at this point. So I keep my iPhone around.

If Apple would play nice with PCs and let you type texts from Windows I'd ditch the Android.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#475

Post by vanous »

jvagner wrote: post #54
drcode wrote: post #15

I'd still love to hear a convincing argument from someone as to the benefits of counting steps and measuring heart rate with a wrist band- Are people feeling like they are more fit because they walked to lunch "the long way" so they can reach the 10000 step goal that Fred from accounting has set for them? Do they feel healthier because they were regularly watching their heart rate reading during their hour in the gym…

In addition to working in tech, I'm also a certified personal trainer (I got it to volunteer train youth at a YMCA, and have kept at it because I work with a small number of people who are trying to enact transformation in various parts of their health & wellness). I got an Amazfit Bip (super cheap, with GPS and HRM). I lift (heavy, 5/3/1 style) and trail run. In short: steps are usually an indication of the aggregat…

Same here. Not only pure number but distribution is what I watch.

Having another family member to pull you out for a walk has been beneficial.

After some time, we have raised the goal to 10000. Now keeping 13k monthly average is not unusual now

I have a feeling that most people use these bands primarily for notifications and I started the same way but then it helped me to become more active.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#476

Post by nl »

Fitbit's market cap is ~$1.5B on $1.5B/year revenue. Garmin's market cap is $16B on $3.5B/year.

Garmin's products are much better, but they have a big range outside the wearables market.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#477

Post by callalex »

flukus wrote: post #425
amatecha wrote: post #412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a personal data vulnerability/risk with Apple Watch? I don't know of any "tracking" or other shenanigans around the personal health data gathered from it.

There's the general risks that they have your data and in future can change what they do it. They can be bought out in future like fitbit, which is obviously laughable at the moment but it's not the first time we've seen apple sink. Plus there's the general bluetooth privacy issues, although I think apple has a decent track record of protecting against this. I'd be interested to know what and how much it shares info…

It doesn’t matter if apple sinks because the architecture includes end to end encryption they do not hold the keys to.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#478

Post by winrid »

phire wrote: post #421
harikb wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

What I've ended up doing is charging my fitbit for 15min every morning while I get dressed. It's enough to go from ~60% to ~80% and fits in as a daily habit, so my watch is almost always between 65% and 80%, It can track my sleep (I exclusively use my watch for tracking sleep, tracking exercise, tracking heartrate and telling the time. I don't have notifications enabled) Then perhaps the best feature of charging the…

This is what I do too. However if you look at some of Fitbit's competitors the battery life is an order of magnitude better. Wondering what Fitbit is doing to make it drop so much in comparison. Lots of more features?

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#479

Post by maheart »

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.

It's not out yet, but a Pine watch ("PineTime") has been announced: https://www.pine64.org/2019/10/05/october-update-pinetime-de...

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#480

Post by jacobkania »

saimiam wrote: post #459
thevagrant wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Garmin only needs to be charged about once a week. If I'm using it a lot for fitness then twice a week. Once I traveled and forgot the charger, I managed to eek nearly two weeks out of the thing. I find this much better than daily charging and have steered away from watches that need to be charged daily.

Which Garmin model? I'm in the market for a running watch and/or a fitness tracker and want to buy a decent Garmin. Most online reviews seem all over the place.

I have a Garmin Instinct. When I don't have many workouts, it gives me 2-3 weeks of battery (including instant phone notifications over Bluetooth, constant heart rate, barometer, and step tracking)

I went on a 2 week trip to Europe and didnt even bring my charger -- lasted the whole time. I've had it for a year now and it's rock solid. It's been in the ocean with me, and been smashed into rocks on backpacking trips. Still in great shape.

I don't endorse many things very heavily but this thing is amazing. It's not sexy with it's black and white screen and small selection of watch faces... But it's so nice never needing to charge it, it's basically indestructible, and does everything you'd want a smart watch to do

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