Google is now investing more in the wearable technology market space by buying Fitbit, for an all-cash deal of $2.1 billion dollars.
Here’s why it is a good investment:
Google Showed Interest in Wearable Technology Prior to Buying Fitbit
Google already made an operating system for smartwatches, Wear OS. The hardware for Wear OS is done by third-party manufacturers.
And Google developed Google Fit, a health-tracking platform for the Android operating system, Wear OS and Apple’s IOS.
Fitbit Was Experiencing Fluctuations in Its Stock Prices
Fitbit was constantly changing in attempting to adjust to an ever-evolving and changing market. This caused prices for Fitbit to fluctuate. The price rose as high as 51.90$ and plunged as low as 2.81$.
Fitbit was in trouble.
Google’s Investment Will Lead to More Innovation
Google expects to use innovation and apply it to wearable technology, and develop new and advanced wearable products, by producing the best artificial intelligence, software and hardware to the market.
Google will have the best of both worlds, by combining its artificial intelligence with Fitbit’s products, to create the best possible wearable devices.
Fitbit Users Concerned with Google Takeover
Fitbit users have concerns about privacy. Fitbit collected a huge amount of health data from its 28 million active users, and they wonder what will happen to the data.
Google has given assurances that they will not sell any Fitbit data or use it for advertising, and has even given users the option of deleting all the data that was stored through their devices.
So, if you had a Fitbit prior to Google buying Fitbit, there won’t be many changes for you.
What Fitbit Gains
Fitbit gains something by the Google acquisition. Though smartwatches continue to improve and innovate, they remain a bit simple.
Fitbit gets to capitalize on Google’s artificial intelligence, and Google’s artificial intelligence is second to none.
In fact, Google Assistant uses superior artificial intelligence, and yet people aren’t as familiar with it as with the inferior Apple’s Siri. The artificial intelligence of Google is better at understanding conversational speech and context.
This means fewer errors and more intuitive responses on the Fitbit, which is what you want, because no one wants to have to do a lot of pushing on functions on such a tiny screen.
It also means that Fitbit has access to Google’s resources and global platform. Innovation will follow when Google applies its knowhow to Fitbit.
What Google Gains
Fitbit has 28 million active users, while Apple has 55 million active users, meaning that Apple has many more users, and yet people call smartwatches Fitbits because the brand name is so connected to smartwatches.
Most people, however, have never heard of Wear OS. The benefit Google gets from acquiring Fitbit is name recognition.
Google Wants to Take on Apple
Thanks to the Apple Watch series, Apple is a leader in the wearable technology field. Google wants to be more competitive in that market.
Combining Google and Fitbit will be of benefit to anyone who acquires a new Fitbit!
