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Fitbit is doomed: Here's why everything Google buys turns to garbage (2019)

zdnet.com

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Re: Fitbit is doomed: Here's why everything Google buys turns to garbage (2019)

#51
Ok so the article is garbage and the author loves to claim things without data just for the sake of cementing his opinions.

Past that, I think it would be interesting to see how Google is going to operate Fitbit moving forward. I personally never found Fitbit attractive (as a product or company) and for the time it was public neither did Wall Street.

I think companies like Fitbit and GoPro will always struggle to create a defensible position in their market. On one side you have Apple squeezing pressing with their cult-like brand and high quality, taking all the upper-end of the market.

On the other side you have the Chinese brands leveraging thier efficiency to create products that serve the lower-end of the market. They compete on price but also have a lot of upper room to apply their efficiencies and squeeze market out of the middle.

And who is the middle? A company like Fitbit that has to compete on both ends while trying to avoid cannibalization.

I think Google's opportunity is to fold that wearable business into their smartphone business and attempt to gain terrain with very tight integrations that can't be used by their Chinese competitors. I don't see any other way for them to win with this acquisition.

Re: Fitbit is doomed: Here's why everything Google buys turns to garbage (2019)

#52
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people give their health data to Silicon Valley corporations? I just don't get it. Didn't people train before the advent of "smart" watches?

I actually have the opposite complaint. I would like my doctor to have access to info from my Apple Watch. Certainly I trained before a smart watch but I didn't necessarily know how fast I was going, if my metrics (like v02 max) were improving, how its affecting my heart, etc. Why would I care if Tim Cook could theoretically look up my resting bpm?

Insurance?.... Job seeking?....

Re: Fitbit is doomed: Here's why everything Google buys turns to garbage (2019)

#54
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people give their health data to Silicon Valley corporations? I just don't get it. Didn't people train before the advent of "smart" watches?

I actually have the opposite complaint. I would like my doctor to have access to info from my Apple Watch. Certainly I trained before a smart watch but I didn't necessarily know how fast I was going, if my metrics (like v02 max) were improving, how its affecting my heart, etc. Why would I care if Tim Cook could theoretically look up my resting bpm?

Substitute 'Tim Cook' for 'law enforcement', 'theoretically' for 'warrantless fishing expedition', 'resting bpm' for 'location' & 'known associates' & 'search terms' & 'browser history'.

Re: Fitbit is doomed: Here's why everything Google buys turns to garbage (2019)

#55
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people give their health data to Silicon Valley corporations? I just don't get it. Didn't people train before the advent of "smart" watches?

I actually have the opposite complaint. I would like my doctor to have access to info from my Apple Watch. Certainly I trained before a smart watch but I didn't necessarily know how fast I was going, if my metrics (like v02 max) were improving, how its affecting my heart, etc. Why would I care if Tim Cook could theoretically look up my resting bpm?

> Why would I care if Tim Cook could theoretically look up my resting bpm?

Because a company can tie the timestamp of your BPM reading to your activity on your phone/desktop/what have you and judge your emotional response to whatever you're doing at the time. Psychotic as this may sound, it opens the door for a lot of particularly Orwellian mass surveillance under the guise of targeted ads. They wouldn't be knowing just what you do or buy, they'd know how you feel about it too.

Re: Fitbit is doomed: Here's why everything Google buys turns to garbage (2019)

#56
post #45
post #43

(2019) Go buy a Fitbit today. Incredibly, against all odds according to this article, you still can. They make new ones every 6 months. They may not have the high-performance 60hz display tech of the AW, but look past that and its a better experience than AW (and I use an iPhone; I still prefer Fitbit). Week long battery life on all models. Truly continuous heart rate monitoring (versus AW's "I'll take a reading mayb…

Why do people give their health data to Silicon Valley corporations? I just don't get it. Didn't people train before the advent of "smart" watches?

Some of the largest players in the fitness tracker market such as Garmin, Suunto, Samsung, and Coros are hardly "Silicon Valley" companies. Sure it's possible to train without a smart watch, but having one makes it much easier to follow a structured training program, measure your progress, and share data with coaches and friends.

Didn't people travel before the advent of the "wheel"?

Re: Fitbit is doomed: Here's why everything Google buys turns to garbage (2019)

#57
post #53

[Meta] I was wondering why a post from 2019 is appearing now. So I checked out the submitters history. This dude seems to have a hard on for Google's failures. Said person has submitted "How Google will Collapse" no less than 5 times.

Before anyone jumps on to trashing that person, may be the person didn't realize it themselves and your comment would give them a chance to realize it and remove the bias if any.

Re: Fitbit is doomed: Here's why everything Google buys turns to garbage (2019)

#59

I opened the article expecting to agree with it, then I got to the part about "does anyone use google flights instead of travelocity " and started to wonder if it was satire.

Flights is my fourth favorite Google product after Search, Maps, and Translate. I used it all the time when travel was a bit more feasible and I hope to make use of it a lot in the future. As a traveler, it's powerful.
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