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Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B

cnbc.com

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Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B

#121

Post by AgloeDreams »

devnonymous wrote: post #64
falcolas wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A large established and (based on personal connections) loyal fan base is a failure? Growth is not everything. Growth isn’t even really sustainable over a long enough time span, and Fitbit’s been around awhile.

Fitbit really only took off after the Pebble acquisition IMHO.

Oh no they owned the fitness tracker market prior, the initial Smartwatch product, the Ionic, was a flop, seemingly their launch of the Versa helped because it was a stylish smartwatch with the fitbit brand and focus, the software was still quite bad compared to Google and Apple's efforts. I would go further to say that Pebble's product was actually much better.

Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B

#122

Post by scarface74 »

kungito wrote: post #49

I for one welcome this change. I want a standalone smartwatch good enough so that I can stop using my phone. The state of smartwatches right now is quite sad (I cannot afford an Apple smartwatch so I cannot speak for those). The simple list of things I want from a smartwatch right now are barely fulfilled by the best I could find which is Huawei Watch 2. I want Google Pay, calls and LTE, proper Maps navigation, sendi…

The Apple Watch Series 3 with cellular is $329. How much cheaper can you get a smart watch with cellular, gps, health sensors, etc?

Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B

#123

Post by chrisfinazzo »

vader1 wrote: post #90

This is terrible news. As if Google didn't know enough about you already - they will now be supplied with a 24/7 live feed of your most sensitive health statistics. I'll be switching to a competitor and closing down my account there as soon as possible to hopefully prevent years of my historic data from being merged into the (ghost) profile Google has on me. But at this rate it won't be long before there are simply n…

To be fair, Apple does this too to some extent. However, given their most recent commercial re privacy and all of their public statements on the topic, I don't expect them to exploit it for profit quite so shamelessly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py0acqg1oKc

Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B

#124

Post by snazz »

kungito wrote: post #49

I for one welcome this change. I want a standalone smartwatch good enough so that I can stop using my phone. The state of smartwatches right now is quite sad (I cannot afford an Apple smartwatch so I cannot speak for those). The simple list of things I want from a smartwatch right now are barely fulfilled by the best I could find which is Huawei Watch 2. I want Google Pay, calls and LTE, proper Maps navigation, sendi…

I do think an Apple Watch meets all of your requirements pretty easily. You’d have to spend more on an LTE model, though.

I don’t think Fitbit has ever tried to compete in this space.

Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B

#125

Post by jsjohnst »

To me, this isn’t about making a stronger push into the wearables market (sure, that’s what they will say), it’s more about collecting as much personal data as they can to better target ads with.

Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B

#126

Post by braythwayt »

John Gruber^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H

Dan Lyons^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H

Steve Ballmer had another colourful analogy, he used it in response to companies claiming that a merger would create a powerhouse to challenge the market leader:

"It’s like taking the two guys who finished second and third in a 100-yard dash and tying their legs together and asking for a rematch, believing that now they’ll run faster."

(Thanks to "raldi" for finding the quote on Daring Fireball, and identifying that Gruber was quoting Lyons, who said he heard it from Ballmer, although the words here are Lyons')

Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B

#127

Post by akudha »

kgraves wrote: post #56

Eventually, all startups will be acquired into the FAANG companies, no matter whatever their "mission statement" is, just like Matryoshka dolls. Pebble -> Fitbit -> Google. I am sure there are more examples.

Wait, what companies did Netflix acquire? I can't name one, but the comment is true for the other four I guess

Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B

#128

Post by vasili111 »

scarface74 wrote: post #81
slightwinder wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google has a long and successful history of acquisitions, as also a long history of lack of direction and headless actions even in their youth days. It's probably just natural for a company with too much money to invest that way.

What long and successful history? The only one that I can think of that was a definite success is Android. Their only notable hardware acquisitions that I can think of were Motorola which was a disaster, Nest which is barely muddling along, and the semi-acquisition of HTC’s hardware team that made the Pixel. While the Pixel may be a great phone, it isn’t taking the world by storm

Looking on Pixel sometimes I think that Google is not interested to have phone that is taking the world. I think it is more interested in taking word of OS of phones and have phone that is part but not taking world. If Googles tries to take world of phones, then other companies like Samsung will start developing their phone OS which Google do not wants. So I think that the current state of the market of phones and phone OS-es is the one that Google see is optimal for them.

Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B

#129

Post by slightwinder »

scarface74 wrote: post #81
slightwinder wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google has a long and successful history of acquisitions, as also a long history of lack of direction and headless actions even in their youth days. It's probably just natural for a company with too much money to invest that way.

What long and successful history? The only one that I can think of that was a definite success is Android. Their only notable hardware acquisitions that I can think of were Motorola which was a disaster, Nest which is barely muddling along, and the semi-acquisition of HTC’s hardware team that made the Pixel. While the Pixel may be a great phone, it isn’t taking the world by storm

Google Maps, Google Earth, Youtube, Google Ads, all started from aquisitions, to name the big services. They have many more small services and features coming from aquisitions.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitio... for a good chronologic list.

Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B

#130

Post by dmurray »

rpmisms wrote: post #39
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't, there's a limited number of them in circulation. :) There's also zero chance it will be affected.

I'm joking, I love my pebble. Just sad to see the company who should support them begin to die.

They "began to die" years ago and had shrunk to less than 10% of their post-IPO valuation. Not that I expect Google to be very price sensitive about this kind of deal.
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