Why Google bought Fitbit and how it could change its smartwatches and trackers

google In January 2021, it confirmed that it has finally completed its acquisition of fitness giant Fitbit. More than a year has passed since Google announced its planned acquisition of the brand. Now that the deal is over, some may be concerned about the future of a fitness-focused company. After all, Fitbit pioneered the fitness tracker industry and has a global community of consumers. Either way, the Fitbit pushed the boundaries of what a wrist fitness tracker could do, but now that it has access to a huge range of Google features, it can do even more in the future.

Fitbit was founded in 2007 by James Park and Eric Friedman, who dreamed of creating devices that use health sensors. In 2009, Fitbit released its first device, known simply as Fitbit. It was a wireless device that could be attached to clothing and could track the train’s movement, sleep and calories burned. In about ten years, Fitbit has grown from two entrepreneurs struggling to find investors to a multimillion-dollar company.

In November 2019, Google paid $2.1 billion to buy a well-known fitness tracking company. However, the settlement is under investigation, including whether it could boost Google’s ad ranking if it decides to use Fitbit’s data to further personalize ads. Fitbit and Google have indicated that user data will not be used for advertising purposes. Rather than focusing on ads, Google’s discussion of the Fitbit deal sounds a lot more interesting.

Reason for buying Google Fitbit

This isn’t the first time Google has entered the smartwatch industry. In January 2019, Google bought the Fossil smartwatch technology and hired several engineers to create it. Google has a reputation for buying companies and absorbing their technologies, so the questions about why Google bought the Fitbit are correct.

There are several reasons why it made sense for Google to buy the Fitbit. Fitbit will help boost Google’s presence with health/wellness devices. Likewise, Google’s support for Fitbit will allow it to improve its fitness equipment more than ever before. Google has the most advanced smartwatch skills with Wear OS, Fitbit is an expert at health tracking and the combination of the two is where Google sees success.

We’re already seeing the impact of Google’s Fitbit deal

In 2022, the effect of Google’s acquisition of Fitbit will be more apparent than ever. In February 2021, Google began selling Fitbits alongside other hardware. Just head over to the Google Store website, click on the Watches section, and you can buy all of the current Fitbit apparel, including the entry-level Fitbit Inspire 2 tracker and the flagship Fitbit Sense smartwatch. Everything is still clearly marked as a Fitbit device, but of course these devices are now part of the Google family.

But perhaps even more remarkable is how Google will use Fitbit after tracking on the Pixel Watch. The Pixel Watch attracted a lot of attention when Google introduced it at Google I/O in May 2022. In addition to confirming the design and release date in Fall 2022, Google also announced that the Pixel Watch will be fully integrated into the Fitbit ecosystem. † Includes the Fitbit Pixel Watch and the ability to sync this data with the Fitbit smartphone app. A previous Pixel Watch leak also showed it uses the same health sensors as the Fitbit Luxe and Fitbit Charge 5. That means we can track activities all day, 24/7 heart rate monitoring, 7 days a week, and more. Per week, cardiovascular fitness, etc. .

What’s in store for Google and Fitbit in the future?

And that’s what we’ve seen now in the Google and Fitbit deal. As the months and years go by, he will only become more influential. For its part, Fitbit has confirmed that it is working on its own Fitbit smartwatch that will run on Wear OS 3. It’s unclear when this smartwatch will launch, but we do know that Fitbit Wear OS usage will arrive at some point.

It will also be interesting to see what role Fitbit plays in the rest of the Google ecosystem. Right now, Fitbit and Google Fit co-exist as two separate platforms. It’s hard to imagine, though, that Google would eventually ditch Google Fit and rely solely on Fitbit. google It’s got its smartwatch tech, Fitbit has its own health expertise, and we’ll probably see those two things come together soon.