Chances are, you’ve heard of Fitbit. They’re one of the leaders in the wearable market for health and activity trackers. Today, Google announced that it will be buying Fitbit as a whole for $2.1 billion. It’s also important to note that this isn’t Alphabet, Google’s parent company, acquiring them. Fitbit will fall under the Google brand, just like Nest and all other Google products.
Google’s SVP of Devices and Services, Rick Osterloh, said that the Fitbit purchase is “an opportunity to invest even more in Wear OS as well as introduce Made by Google wearable devices into the market.” That definitely hints at a future Google smartwatch.
Google and Fitbit also made it clear that “Fitbit health and wellness data will not be used for Google ads” and they “will give Fitbit users the choice to review, move, or delete their data.”
Google also emphasized that it’s remaining invested in the Wear OS platform:
“[We] remain committed to Wear OS and our ecosystem partners, and we plan to work closely with Fitbit to combine the best of our respective smartwatch and fitness tracker platforms.”
Fitbit’s hardware capabilities with Google’s software and developer support could benefit both companies in the long-run. This news of acquisition comes nearly 10 months after Google bought $40 million of smartwatch tech from Fossil including some personnel. We’ve yet to see a Made by Google smartwatch, but maybe 2020 will finally be the year.
