For a long fourth dimension , it ’s felt like Google has give the fate of its smartwatch and wearable platform — Wear OS — to third - political party equipment makers like Fossil . But that ’s all about to change now thatGoogle has agreed to acquire wearable jumbo Fitbit .
In apress release , Fitbit says it was acquired for $ 2.1 billion . Meanwhile , in a freestanding blog post , Google senior vice chair Rick Osterloh said Google sees this wad as “ an opportunity to gift even more in Wear OS as well as introduce Made by Google wearable machine into the market . ”
Osterloh also added that Fitbit “ has been a dead on target trailblazer in the industry ” and that “ by work closely with Fitbit ’s team of expert , and bring together the expert AI , software program and ironware , we can help spur innovation in wearables and build products to profit even more hoi polloi around the world . ”
Photo: Sam Rutherford (Gizmodo)
After age of hearing rumour abouta supposed Google - made Pixel Watchthat never materialized , this deal should give Google the resources and expertise to create a new bank line of first - political party article of clothing machine to rival other technical school giants .
When it comes to the wearable market as a whole , this is critically important for Google . According to IDC stats from Q1 2019 , Fitbit sits in fifth post for total wearable food market share behind Apple , Xiaomi , Huawei , and Samsung ( in that order ) , with Apple get a overlooking lead story at 26 percent .
For Google , article of clothing have been a leave out piece to the puzzle in the company ’s get-up-and-go into ambient computing , which seeks to give users more raw and intuitive way of access data or controlling gadget , while prevent gadgets from being cumbersome or intrusive .
Osterloh also mentioned that while Google want to help people “ alive healthier , more alive animation , ” Google does n’t want to compromise people ’s privateness , especially as it pertain to potentially sensitive health data point . So to the end , Osterloh say Google will never trade personal info to anyone , and that Google will “ will be see-through about the data we collect and why . ”
However , because Google has only just entered into a definitive correspondence to grease one’s palms Fitbit , I would n’t expect to hear about any new Google - made vesture until after next year . But with Google I / O typically being hold in the spring , that seems like a perfect time for Google to show off the fruits of its forthcoming purchase .
GoogleSmartwatcheswearables
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