Is there a pithy name for the “law” that any company that collects your data and promises its private will eventually sell it?
Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
321–330 of 784 posts
Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
#322Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Apple Watch Series 3 with cellular is $329. How much cheaper can you get a smart watch with cellular, gps, health sensors, etc?
Does it have a 6 day battery? My Fitbit does.
Does your Fitbit have a cellular connection? He explicitly said he wants something that allows him to leave his phone at home.
Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
#323Earlier 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.
Not so loyal, also based on personal anecdotes: wife and me both had to have our fitbits replaced and with mine dead again, I'm looking at everything except Fitbit. Scouring forums full of people with bizarre problems with their devices (usually connection related tho that might be only a symptom), I get the impression I'm not an outlier. Fitbit built up a huge fan base but looks to me like it is now in the process o…
I ended up replacing several fitbits in my family with Apple watches. The $199 price point is very compelling.
Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
#324Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the point you're missing is everyone levels up. Even amateur fitness users want a better fitness wearable. Which is why Garmin and Apple have the lion's share of the market. Fitbit is still seen as a step tracker level device, even if they do more. Garmin wearables are laser focused to the workout market and most buyers seem to lust over the idea of needing a more capable fitness device. Garmin and Apple both…
Apple Watch battery lasts a day at most. My Fitbit can go without a charge for 6 days. Fitbit offers sleep tracking.. Apple Watch doesn’t natively, and even if it did, you still have to charge it at night. Fitbits are more minimalistic. They’re so nice. I don’t want a Garmin wearable. A lot of people who use Fitbits don’t use them for the fitness aspect. We use them to avoid the sedentary lifestyle by viewing our ste…
>Apple Watch doesn’t natively, and even if it did, you still have to charge it at night
The way around that is to charge it earlier in the evening before bed - I do that and it lasts me easily until the following evening.
But it's a shame the device doesn't cover sleep natively.
Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
#325Oof. Goodbye Fitbit. Or, rather, welcome to the world where you're a pawn in internal politics.
You may think you have a product but you don't. If your product survives (as in, Google didn't buy you just for the team), your product schedule will have to survive the interests of every other PA/team in Google.
- You think you have software to run your products? Ha. The Android team will have a different opinion.
- Even if you survive Android, Fuchsia probably thinks you belong on their paltform.
- Oh and while we're at it, let's integrate with OAuth2.0 so your device now needs a Google account to even work (and stops working when refresh tokens can't be used as happened to many Google wireless routers).
- Your software development is now set in stone as various teams work out how to migrate it to Google infrastructure and rewrite it in [language/framework du jour].
I actually agree with other commenters: Google just doesn't know what it's about anymore. It has no overriding vision. Larry just isn't the leader Google needs to be, which would be fine, except that he clearly wants to be.
Disclaimer: Xoogler.
Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
#326Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been interested in tracking sleep/exercise/heart rate more closely, but have yet to find a manufacturer that takes privacy seriously. Whatever device I have should transfer data only to computers that are under my control. No matter how pure the intentions of the current maintainers of centralized databases, acquisitions can lead to those databases being in unscrupulous hands.
> have yet to find a manufacturer that takes privacy seriously What's wrong with Apple then?
You need an iPhone. The square design might not appeal to everyone
Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
#327Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google fully deletes their user data when requested, I'm not sure why malice over data retention is being assumed here.
Do they? Or do they just anonymize it? Companies don't like to destroy assets. I don't think anybody is assuming malice, just incompetence. There are precedents after all.
I wouldn't blame anyone for not trusting them, but here's their page on it:
Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
#328John 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" f…
“Argument by analogy is very powerful and utterly fallacious” — my high-school Theory Of Knowledge teacher (Mr Dawson you’re the best)
That said, I’m really not enthused by this under either the business (relevant case history: Nest) or privacy perspective.
Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
#329Earlier 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.
As the owner of a Nest (pre-Google acquisition), I can only say that it's not been a positive experience for me. Condescending emails about how many 'leafs' I've earned every few months and forcing me to login to the device over Google instead of my Nest account is what I'm faced with now.
I purchased a first generation Nest, and I remember getting emails about leafs for as long as I've had it. I don't think that one is on Google
Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
#330My friends and I have this theory that the top management at Google feels they are extremely close to general AI. With acquisitions like this we would hazard the guess that they want to see what data they are missing that could feed that borg and then buy a company that could supply the missing bits. They just have to promise that they won’t use it for ads. But if that AI gets better and better soon they have enormou…
Interesting. Would they be behaving differently if they were just racing to be first to general AI rather than already being "extremely close"? Seems like they're making great strides with specific applications but given the reported limitations even in that class of AI (see Duplex) I'd be surprised if they were on the brink of general intelligence. Of course, you might consider close to be in the next decade or two, in which case [shrugs].