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https://news.yahoo.com/google-acquiring-fitbit-130619853.html https://news.yahoo.com/google-acquiring-fitbit-130619853.htm... "Google has struggled to make muc

by jpm_sd 7y ago

https://news.yahoo.com/google-acquiring-fitbit-130619853.html https://news.yahoo.com/google-acquiring-fitbit-130619853.htm... "Google has struggled to make much of a dent in the wearables category..." "Fitbit, meanwhile, has had issues maintaining growth in recent years." Failure + failure = success?

falcolas 7y ago
A large established and (based on personal connections) loyal fan base is a failure? Growth is not everything. Growth isn’t even really sustainable over a long enough time span, and Fitbit’s been around awhile.
- devnonymous 7y ago
  Fitbit really only took off after the Pebble acquisition IMHO.
  - AgloeDreams 7y ago
    Oh no they owned the fitness tracker market prior, the initial Smartwatch product, the Ionic, was a flop, seemingly their launch of the Versa helped because it was a stylish smartwatch with the fitbit brand and focus, the software was still quite bad compared to Google and Apple's efforts. I would go further to say that Pebble's product was actually much better.
    - Avamander 7y ago
      Versa also has hardware design errors, it allows water to leak in (trough HR sensor's bad adhesive seal) with regular use causing massive return rates.
- pjmlp 7y ago
  Many management boards do live on the utopia of eternal growth and and it stops, a couple of hundred thousand employees get shown the door, just because they need to collect their bonuses.
  - WhompingWindows 7y ago
    So true, often when I google news of a company laying off a bunch of workers, I then see the stock ticker and sure enough, the stock is up 10% on the news.
- senko 7y ago
  Not so loyal, also based on personal anecdotes: wife and me both had to have our fitbits replaced and with mine dead again, I'm looking at everything except Fitbit. Scouring forums full of people with bizarre problems with their devices (usually connection related tho that might be only a symptom), I get the impression I'm not an outlier. Fitbit built up a huge fan base but looks to me like it is now in the process of shedding it at alarming speed.
  - tomComb 7y ago
    I've been getting the same impression. It's the sort of thing that can happen when a company is on hard times and cutting corners perhaps. Glad to see them purchased by a company with deep pockets and a real interest in making Fitbit a success.
    - dev_throw 7y ago
      Unfortunately Google is known for its terrible customer support and sunsetting services early. It could go either way.
      - fesoliveira 7y ago
        Why is Google know for its terrible customer support? I have had great experiences with their support analysts in the past, specially concerning Nexus/Pixel devices and Google admin accounts. I never had to wait more than a few minutes to talk to someone and they are always polite and tried to help as much as they can, but this is all anecdotal. Could you give me examples of their poor customer support? I know that they are not so great with developers who publish stuff on Play Store and the likes, but never heard of them being bad with paying customers.
        kcarter80 7y ago
        I can. I had the USB-C connector on my Pixel 3XL fail. This failure is covered under warranty. I was in Asia at the time. I asked for a replacement, but they cannot ship internationally (even if I paid for it). So I had them ship it to my dad's place, he was going to be meeting me in Thailand. Well, they shipped it to the wrong address, and by the time it was returned to sender and they sent my dad another one, he'd already left for Thailand. When he returned home, he mailed the replacement phone back to Google. When I returned from Asia, I requested another replacement. Well, my account had gotten into some state where they couldn't issue a replacement. I was escalated to a higher level of tech and told to wait. I waited. And waited. 2 months past. My account was finally "fixed" but by then I'd left for a 3 month trip to Europe. I had them ship the replacement to my mom in Chicago. Then she mailed the replacement to me in Switzerland. An incredible hassle all around, made far worse by their very low end customer support folks. Every interaction began with a 20 minute conversation about what had happened followed by them typically saying "you're escalated to a higher tier, there's nothing we can do." Some of the pain above could be fixed by changing their international shipping policy. But my account being in some state where they couldn't issue a new phone to me for 2 months even when I was in the US was supremely frustrating and intolerable. --- I've had another issue recently. I bought a Pixel 4XL. Google allows trade-ins of old phones, but at the time trading in a Pixel 3XL was not an option (they fully acknowledge this). So I called the next day and asked to add a trade in. Not possible. They suggested I return to sender the phone I bought to avoid the restocking fee (it was too late to cancel the order), and then place another order with a trade in. Well, that wasn't going to work because the phone was sold out. LAME.
- chungus_khan 7y ago
  In financialized capitalism growth is everything. If capital isn't generating growth for its holders it is losing it (relative to other investments).
- jyrkesh 7y ago
  I've gone through two Fitbits and I'll never buy one again. Horrible customer service, horrible build quality, band just kept breaking under REALLY light usage, and they refused to replace it the 2nd time because I was out of warranty (even though it was a replacement band that lasted <9 months). The guy kept trying to get me to use a 20% off coupon for buying a new Fitbit instead, as if he was doing me a favor. So yeah, I'm with others below, I'm looking at everything else. Just bought a Withings on a whim, and I'm really happy with it so far. May spring for the ECG model once it passes FDA approval.
  - mateuszf 7y ago
    I was searching for Withings in the comments, and this is the only occurence. I also played with various fitness and smartwatches, but the only one I really like and stick with is Withings Steel HR. Battery lasts a month, it's water resistant, shows me notifications, tracks steps and sleep and looks good at the same time! Also costs less than a "real" smartwatch. What a bargain to me. If only it had NFC payments it would be perfect.
- onlyrealcuzzo 7y ago
  Also just because something isn't #1, that doesn't mean it's a bad acquisition. I don't know enough about the details of this to comment, but just because FitBit isn't the biggest thing in wearables doesn't mean it's a stupid acquisition target. If Apple wanted to sell the Apple Watch for $2 Trillion dollars, that would obviously be a terrible acquisition. If Google bought FitBit for $2000, that would obviously be an awesome acquisition.
martinsuchan 7y ago
This reminds me when Microsoft acquired Nokia for some reason.
- jsight 7y ago
  I think the Google acquisition of Motorola is relevant as well. On the surface, it looks like it makes sense, but Google has a horrible track record with these things.
  - dboreham 7y ago
    I thought Google acquired Moto for the patent portfolio. On that basis the transaction seems to have paid off given the relative lack of noise on the troll front recently.
    - jsight 7y ago
      That is possible, but it seems like they could have accomplished that for a lot less money.
      - Gustomaximus 7y ago
        How?
- mnd999 7y ago
  That was a fantastic deal - for Nokia. They offloaded a large underperforming business whilst retaining all the valuable IP.
virgilp 7y ago
> Failure + failure = success? Well the world is not so simple. Apple + Next = ?
- tempodox 7y ago
  A bit off topic, but since you mention it: Apple + Next = OS X / Cocoa, which was, for a limited time, a positive development. Now, of course, it's on the decline because of iOS-ification and “Services”. They went from “Apple Computers” to “Apple”. In another 5 years it will be “Apple Services”.
naringas 7y ago
growth != success edit: not saying it didn't used to be, up to the 20th century it certainly was.
- Razengan 7y ago
  "Growth" = ?
  - wongarsu 7y ago
    Growth implies success, but you can be successful without growth. Just running a profitable business that's not losing market share is enough for most people's definition of success.
    - naringas 7y ago
      > Growth implies success there's a very famous counterexample, namely cancer. are there others?
    - Razengan 7y ago
      > Growth implies But what is growth? Making more money? More users? Happier users? After attaining profitability I wish companies would focus on making existing users happy, instead of making more money by any means necessary. If they did that then more users + more money would follow naturally. The sibling comment about cancer is so apt. When does "growth" become cancerous?
sjg007 7y ago
My wife swears by her Fitbit... my guess is google needs their expertise to compete with Apple Watch.
whoisjuan 7y ago
- * - = + ... I don't know dude. The math checks out.
- ronilan 7y ago
  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Indeed.
mrits 7y ago
A blind and deff guy make a good team.
MiracleUser 7y ago
It's just capitalism consolidating its losses. Both sides can lighten up some overworked desks. Fitbit can cut some management overhead by being under google, and google can cut some operations overhead by allocating to fitbit. Overall it is less of a failure to merge than them failing independently.
Phillips126 7y ago
It seems Google may be very interested in health data collected by Fitbit as other comments speculate. Fitbit has already done the data collection - now Google is buying it. For Google, this is definitely a "win" as I suspect they are mostly interested in this data and not as much in the hardware.
papln 7y ago
https://www.seinfeldscripts.com/TheSummerofGeorge.htm https://www.seinfeldscripts.com/TheSummerofGeorge.htm George: [Laughs] Relationship intern...hey, what if two of us teamed up? ... George: I've tried. We don't have it. But maybe the two of us, working together at full capacity, could do the job of one normal man. Jerry: Then each of us would only have be like a half man. That sounds about right! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HggAV7V6Wg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HggAV7V6Wg

by jpm_sd 7y ago

falcolas 7y ago

A large established and (based on personal connections) loyal fan base is a failure? Growth is not everything. Growth isn’t even really sustainable over a long enough time span, and Fitbit’s been around awhile.

devnonymous 7y ago
Fitbit really only took off after the Pebble acquisition IMHO.
- AgloeDreams 7y ago
  Oh no they owned the fitness tracker market prior, the initial Smartwatch product, the Ionic, was a flop, seemingly their launch of the Versa helped because it was a stylish smartwatch with the fitbit brand and focus, the software was still quite bad compared to Google and Apple's efforts. I would go further to say that Pebble's product was actually much better.
  - Avamander 7y ago
    Versa also has hardware design errors, it allows water to leak in (trough HR sensor's bad adhesive seal) with regular use causing massive return rates.
pjmlp 7y ago
Many management boards do live on the utopia of eternal growth and and it stops, a couple of hundred thousand employees get shown the door, just because they need to collect their bonuses.
- WhompingWindows 7y ago
  So true, often when I google news of a company laying off a bunch of workers, I then see the stock ticker and sure enough, the stock is up 10% on the news.
senko 7y ago
Not so loyal, also based on personal anecdotes: wife and me both had to have our fitbits replaced and with mine dead again, I'm looking at everything except Fitbit. Scouring forums full of people with bizarre problems with their devices (usually connection related tho that might be only a symptom), I get the impression I'm not an outlier. Fitbit built up a huge fan base but looks to me like it is now in the process of shedding it at alarming speed.
- tomComb 7y ago
  I've been getting the same impression. It's the sort of thing that can happen when a company is on hard times and cutting corners perhaps. Glad to see them purchased by a company with deep pockets and a real interest in making Fitbit a success.
  - dev_throw 7y ago
    Unfortunately Google is known for its terrible customer support and sunsetting services early. It could go either way.
    - fesoliveira 7y ago
      Why is Google know for its terrible customer support? I have had great experiences with their support analysts in the past, specially concerning Nexus/Pixel devices and Google admin accounts. I never had to wait more than a few minutes to talk to someone and they are always polite and tried to help as much as they can, but this is all anecdotal. Could you give me examples of their poor customer support? I know that they are not so great with developers who publish stuff on Play Store and the likes, but never heard of them being bad with paying customers.
      - kcarter80 7y ago
        I can. I had the USB-C connector on my Pixel 3XL fail. This failure is covered under warranty. I was in Asia at the time. I asked for a replacement, but they cannot ship internationally (even if I paid for it). So I had them ship it to my dad's place, he was going to be meeting me in Thailand. Well, they shipped it to the wrong address, and by the time it was returned to sender and they sent my dad another one, he'd already left for Thailand. When he returned home, he mailed the replacement phone back to Google. When I returned from Asia, I requested another replacement. Well, my account had gotten into some state where they couldn't issue a replacement. I was escalated to a higher level of tech and told to wait. I waited. And waited. 2 months past. My account was finally "fixed" but by then I'd left for a 3 month trip to Europe. I had them ship the replacement to my mom in Chicago. Then she mailed the replacement to me in Switzerland. An incredible hassle all around, made far worse by their very low end customer support folks. Every interaction began with a 20 minute conversation about what had happened followed by them typically saying "you're escalated to a higher tier, there's nothing we can do." Some of the pain above could be fixed by changing their international shipping policy. But my account being in some state where they couldn't issue a new phone to me for 2 months even when I was in the US was supremely frustrating and intolerable. --- I've had another issue recently. I bought a Pixel 4XL. Google allows trade-ins of old phones, but at the time trading in a Pixel 3XL was not an option (they fully acknowledge this). So I called the next day and asked to add a trade in. Not possible. They suggested I return to sender the phone I bought to avoid the restocking fee (it was too late to cancel the order), and then place another order with a trade in. Well, that wasn't going to work because the phone was sold out. LAME.
chungus_khan 7y ago
In financialized capitalism growth is everything. If capital isn't generating growth for its holders it is losing it (relative to other investments).
jyrkesh 7y ago
I've gone through two Fitbits and I'll never buy one again. Horrible customer service, horrible build quality, band just kept breaking under REALLY light usage, and they refused to replace it the 2nd time because I was out of warranty (even though it was a replacement band that lasted <9 months). The guy kept trying to get me to use a 20% off coupon for buying a new Fitbit instead, as if he was doing me a favor. So yeah, I'm with others below, I'm looking at everything else. Just bought a Withings on a whim, and I'm really happy with it so far. May spring for the ECG model once it passes FDA approval.
- mateuszf 7y ago
  I was searching for Withings in the comments, and this is the only occurence. I also played with various fitness and smartwatches, but the only one I really like and stick with is Withings Steel HR. Battery lasts a month, it's water resistant, shows me notifications, tracks steps and sleep and looks good at the same time! Also costs less than a "real" smartwatch. What a bargain to me. If only it had NFC payments it would be perfect.
onlyrealcuzzo 7y ago
Also just because something isn't #1, that doesn't mean it's a bad acquisition. I don't know enough about the details of this to comment, but just because FitBit isn't the biggest thing in wearables doesn't mean it's a stupid acquisition target. If Apple wanted to sell the Apple Watch for $2 Trillion dollars, that would obviously be a terrible acquisition. If Google bought FitBit for $2000, that would obviously be an awesome acquisition.

martinsuchan 7y ago

This reminds me when Microsoft acquired Nokia for some reason.

jsight 7y ago
I think the Google acquisition of Motorola is relevant as well. On the surface, it looks like it makes sense, but Google has a horrible track record with these things.
- dboreham 7y ago
  I thought Google acquired Moto for the patent portfolio. On that basis the transaction seems to have paid off given the relative lack of noise on the troll front recently.
  - jsight 7y ago
    That is possible, but it seems like they could have accomplished that for a lot less money.
    - Gustomaximus 7y ago
      How?
mnd999 7y ago
That was a fantastic deal - for Nokia. They offloaded a large underperforming business whilst retaining all the valuable IP.

virgilp 7y ago

> Failure + failure = success? Well the world is not so simple. Apple + Next = ?

tempodox 7y ago
A bit off topic, but since you mention it: Apple + Next = OS X / Cocoa, which was, for a limited time, a positive development. Now, of course, it's on the decline because of iOS-ification and “Services”. They went from “Apple Computers” to “Apple”. In another 5 years it will be “Apple Services”.

naringas 7y ago

growth != success edit: not saying it didn't used to be, up to the 20th century it certainly was.

Razengan 7y ago
"Growth" = ?
- wongarsu 7y ago
  Growth implies success, but you can be successful without growth. Just running a profitable business that's not losing market share is enough for most people's definition of success.
  - naringas 7y ago
    > Growth implies success there's a very famous counterexample, namely cancer. are there others?
  - Razengan 7y ago
    > Growth implies But what is growth? Making more money? More users? Happier users? After attaining profitability I wish companies would focus on making existing users happy, instead of making more money by any means necessary. If they did that then more users + more money would follow naturally. The sibling comment about cancer is so apt. When does "growth" become cancerous?

sjg007 7y ago

My wife swears by her Fitbit... my guess is google needs their expertise to compete with Apple Watch.

whoisjuan 7y ago

- * - = + ... I don't know dude. The math checks out.

ronilan 7y ago
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Indeed.

mrits 7y ago

A blind and deff guy make a good team.

MiracleUser 7y ago

It's just capitalism consolidating its losses. Both sides can lighten up some overworked desks. Fitbit can cut some management overhead by being under google, and google can cut some operations overhead by allocating to fitbit. Overall it is less of a failure to merge than them failing independently.

Phillips126 7y ago

It seems Google may be very interested in health data collected by Fitbit as other comments speculate. Fitbit has already done the data collection - now Google is buying it. For Google, this is definitely a "win" as I suspect they are mostly interested in this data and not as much in the hardware.

papln 7y ago

https://www.seinfeldscripts.com/TheSummerofGeorge.htm https://www.seinfeldscripts.com/TheSummerofGeorge.htm George: [Laughs] Relationship intern...hey, what if two of us teamed up? ... George: I've tried. We don't have it. But maybe the two of us, working together at full capacity, could do the job of one normal man. Jerry: Then each of us would only have be like a half man. That sounds about right! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HggAV7V6Wg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HggAV7V6Wg