11 ms·

> Fitbit was getting killed and would likely have gone out of business If this is a reason for acquisition, then why wouldn't G*gle wait until they were "kille

by j0ba 6y ago

> Fitbit was getting killed and would likely have gone out of business If this is a reason for acquisition, then why wouldn't G*gle wait until they were "killed" so they could come in and buy their business for pennies on the dollar? We're fast approaching a dystopian Snow Crash world of all-powerful corporations, and you people are cheering it along. How can these both be true? - it's bad all US legacy media is owned by 5 corporations. - it's good for FB, Apple, Amazon and to buy up all adjacent business. I don't see how sharing data is a good argument for unchecked consolidation of power. I'm pretty sure Fitbit could export an open standard data format, and Google could consume one. But I guess rich people wouldn't be able to get even richer if they did that.

thatguy0900 6y ago
>If this is a reason for acquisition, then why wouldn't G*gle wait until they were "killed" so they could come in and buy their business for pennies on the dollar? Because what Google wants to buy is their marketshare and existing userbase. I very much doubt fitbit has any tech or products google couldn't make themselves in a few months. The longer fitbit sucks compared to their competition the lower that becomes.
- halfdan 6y ago
  This, and they want to hire the talent that built the product. If Fitbit were already a sinking ship for too long most senior folks would have left.
  - at-fates-hands 6y ago
    Great point. Hard to continue developing a product when the most talented people in the company have gone elsewhere already. They need the human capital in order to make sure it stays afloat and they get the requisite knowledge transfer. Then its anybody's guess what will happen. Google's track record of buying technology and then doing something better with it is not encouraging at all.
    - triceratops 6y ago
      > Google's track record of buying technology and then doing something better with it is not encouraging at all. Err...what? Earth, Maps, Docs, Waymo, Android, YouTube, WebRTC, Flights, Deepmind all come from acquisitions.[1] 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Alphabet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitio...
      - kiwijamo 6y ago
        They haven't done much better with many of these. And I suspect these would also have succeeded independently of Google.
- ohgodplsno 6y ago
  > very much doubt fitbit has any tech or products google couldn't make themselves in a few months. Considering how absolutely dreadful Google's hardware (pixel line, pixel watch) is nowadays, and how unfinished all of their software is, no, Google would not be able to make any of that in a few months.
- mtgx 6y ago
  > Because what Google wants to buy is their marketshare and existing userbase And we should care, why? If anything we should want Google to build its own competitor.
- IgorPartola 6y ago
  Hahaha I literally laughed out loud at this. Google making products. Have you seen how they make products? They have killed more physical products than they have delivered. They discontinue them more frequently than an average person throws out a napkin. Their first gen products are usually overpriced trash (Google Glass? Nexus Q?). If Google could pump out electronics with the speed and quality of someone like Anker or Amazon they’d be buying half of Europe for cash right now. I don’t pretend to know why they can’t but empirical evidence shows that it takes them several years and at least a product generation to put out something useful. For them to put out a fitness tracker or a smart watch in a few months that would be remotely competitive with the Apple Watch is just not in the cards.
  - wlesieutre 6y ago
    They nailed the Nexus 7, but that was a while ago (2012 and 2013) EDIT - never mind, Asus made both of those
    - jsheard 6y ago
      All the Nexus devices were made by third parties, it's when they switched to Pixel branding that they started designing them in-house.
    - 29083011397778 6y ago
      Were you thinking of the 2012 Nexus 7 with the poor-quality NAND that went bad within a couple years, rendering the tablet useless? Or the 2013 that had phantom/unregistering input due to (IIRC) general build-quality and flex issues? Asus did make both, but I'm not sure either was as good as you recall, sadly.
      - spaetzleesser 6y ago
        The Nexus 7 was way ahead of the competition at the time. It was fast, had a great display and cheap. I used mine for 6 years before it stopped working. Unfortunately google didn’t build on its success.
      - 6y ago
- jakereps 6y ago
  >Because what Google wants to buy is their marketshare and existing userbase. Personally, I'm curious how that worked out for them. The announcement of this purchase, and how they handled Nest, is what made me stop using my Fitbit.
- nradov 6y ago
  Google also wanted the Fitbit patents for IP litigation protection.
Turbots 6y ago
I could already sync up my fitbit with Google Fit, so this already existed. Their argument is moot, as you suspected
klmadfejno 6y ago
My favorite part of snow crash was the corporate mergers with public entities like the library of congress. That one's probably safe for now, but I wonder if we'll see corporate mergers with small local governments when they start to default on their debts.
- cratermoon 6y ago
  https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/citizen-coupon https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/citizen-coup... "Imagine there was no such thing as a library, and that members of the current neoliberal policy consensus were to sit down today and invent it. They might create complicated tax expenditures to subsidize the poor purchasing and reselling books, like the wage support of the earned income tax credit. They might require people to rent books from approved private libraries, with penalties for those who don’t and vouchers for those who can’t afford it, like the individual mandate in the latest expansion of health care. They might come up with a program where they take on liability for books that go missing from private libraries and thereby boost profits for lenders themselves, like federally backed private student loans. Or maybe they’d create means-tested libraries only accessible to the poor, with a requirement that patrons document how impoverished they are month after month to keep their library card. Maybe they’d exempt the cost of private library cards from payroll taxes, or let anything calling itself a library pay nothing in taxes."
  - xsmasher 6y ago
    If someone invented the concept of a library today wouldn't it sound, you know, kinda socialist?
    - cratermoon 6y ago
      Oh, very.
    - robertlagrant 6y ago
      Only if the state owned all the pens and paper. I guess those are the means of production for authors?
willyg123 6y ago
> why wouldn't G*gle wait until they were "killed" so they could come in and buy their business for pennies on the dollar? The company waiting for this to happen missed out on the deal.
nradov 6y ago
Fitbit is able to export the semi-open FIT file data format. https://www.thisisant.com/ https://www.thisisant.com/
stormcode 6y ago
If we do enter the Snow Crash mega corp/gated burb future I want to become a Deliverator for the pizza mafia. I'm also not for this. I wasn't for nest either. I now trust the device on my wrist less.
black6 6y ago
> We're fast approaching a dystopian Snow Crash world of all-powerful corporations, and you people are cheering it along. Walmart is uniquely set up to become the first FOQNE.
rodgerd 6y ago
It's good when companies I want to work with who or give me free candy are winning. They're my team! It's bad when Nazis and Nazi-adjacent folks don't get a platform because they're my... uh...
h0l0cube 6y ago
They want their brand recognition, brand loyalty, market share, and specifically they want a watch to compliment their Pixel phones to counter growth of Apple Watch (which locks people into buying iPhones). All those reasons are better now than later
krageon 6y ago
You've hit the nail on the head here. The only arguments in favour of these are money-oriented and therefore celebrating the fundamental move towards a dystopic future (insofar as it isn't already here, which is debatable to a painful degree). Nobody wins here, except for a very small group of already outrageously powerful and rich people. Any regular human being will at best gain nothing from this and at worst have all of their information inserted into the Google silo.

by j0ba 6y ago

thatguy0900 6y ago

>If this is a reason for acquisition, then why wouldn't G*gle wait until they were "killed" so they could come in and buy their business for pennies on the dollar? Because what Google wants to buy is their marketshare and existing userbase. I very much doubt fitbit has any tech or products google couldn't make themselves in a few months. The longer fitbit sucks compared to their competition the lower that becomes.

halfdan 6y ago
This, and they want to hire the talent that built the product. If Fitbit were already a sinking ship for too long most senior folks would have left.
- at-fates-hands 6y ago
  Great point. Hard to continue developing a product when the most talented people in the company have gone elsewhere already. They need the human capital in order to make sure it stays afloat and they get the requisite knowledge transfer. Then its anybody's guess what will happen. Google's track record of buying technology and then doing something better with it is not encouraging at all.
  - triceratops 6y ago
    > Google's track record of buying technology and then doing something better with it is not encouraging at all. Err...what? Earth, Maps, Docs, Waymo, Android, YouTube, WebRTC, Flights, Deepmind all come from acquisitions.[1] 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Alphabet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitio...
    - kiwijamo 6y ago
      They haven't done much better with many of these. And I suspect these would also have succeeded independently of Google.
ohgodplsno 6y ago
> very much doubt fitbit has any tech or products google couldn't make themselves in a few months. Considering how absolutely dreadful Google's hardware (pixel line, pixel watch) is nowadays, and how unfinished all of their software is, no, Google would not be able to make any of that in a few months.
mtgx 6y ago
> Because what Google wants to buy is their marketshare and existing userbase And we should care, why? If anything we should want Google to build its own competitor.
IgorPartola 6y ago
Hahaha I literally laughed out loud at this. Google making products. Have you seen how they make products? They have killed more physical products than they have delivered. They discontinue them more frequently than an average person throws out a napkin. Their first gen products are usually overpriced trash (Google Glass? Nexus Q?). If Google could pump out electronics with the speed and quality of someone like Anker or Amazon they’d be buying half of Europe for cash right now. I don’t pretend to know why they can’t but empirical evidence shows that it takes them several years and at least a product generation to put out something useful. For them to put out a fitness tracker or a smart watch in a few months that would be remotely competitive with the Apple Watch is just not in the cards.
- wlesieutre 6y ago
  They nailed the Nexus 7, but that was a while ago (2012 and 2013) EDIT - never mind, Asus made both of those
  - jsheard 6y ago
    All the Nexus devices were made by third parties, it's when they switched to Pixel branding that they started designing them in-house.
  - 29083011397778 6y ago
    Were you thinking of the 2012 Nexus 7 with the poor-quality NAND that went bad within a couple years, rendering the tablet useless? Or the 2013 that had phantom/unregistering input due to (IIRC) general build-quality and flex issues? Asus did make both, but I'm not sure either was as good as you recall, sadly.
    - spaetzleesser 6y ago
      The Nexus 7 was way ahead of the competition at the time. It was fast, had a great display and cheap. I used mine for 6 years before it stopped working. Unfortunately google didn’t build on its success.
    - 6y ago
jakereps 6y ago
>Because what Google wants to buy is their marketshare and existing userbase. Personally, I'm curious how that worked out for them. The announcement of this purchase, and how they handled Nest, is what made me stop using my Fitbit.
nradov 6y ago
Google also wanted the Fitbit patents for IP litigation protection.

Turbots 6y ago

I could already sync up my fitbit with Google Fit, so this already existed. Their argument is moot, as you suspected

klmadfejno 6y ago

My favorite part of snow crash was the corporate mergers with public entities like the library of congress. That one's probably safe for now, but I wonder if we'll see corporate mergers with small local governments when they start to default on their debts.

cratermoon 6y ago
https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/citizen-coupon https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/citizen-coup... "Imagine there was no such thing as a library, and that members of the current neoliberal policy consensus were to sit down today and invent it. They might create complicated tax expenditures to subsidize the poor purchasing and reselling books, like the wage support of the earned income tax credit. They might require people to rent books from approved private libraries, with penalties for those who don’t and vouchers for those who can’t afford it, like the individual mandate in the latest expansion of health care. They might come up with a program where they take on liability for books that go missing from private libraries and thereby boost profits for lenders themselves, like federally backed private student loans. Or maybe they’d create means-tested libraries only accessible to the poor, with a requirement that patrons document how impoverished they are month after month to keep their library card. Maybe they’d exempt the cost of private library cards from payroll taxes, or let anything calling itself a library pay nothing in taxes."
- xsmasher 6y ago
  If someone invented the concept of a library today wouldn't it sound, you know, kinda socialist?
  - cratermoon 6y ago
    Oh, very.
  - robertlagrant 6y ago
    Only if the state owned all the pens and paper. I guess those are the means of production for authors?

willyg123 6y ago

> why wouldn't G*gle wait until they were "killed" so they could come in and buy their business for pennies on the dollar? The company waiting for this to happen missed out on the deal.

nradov 6y ago

Fitbit is able to export the semi-open FIT file data format. https://www.thisisant.com/ https://www.thisisant.com/

stormcode 6y ago

If we do enter the Snow Crash mega corp/gated burb future I want to become a Deliverator for the pizza mafia. I'm also not for this. I wasn't for nest either. I now trust the device on my wrist less.

black6 6y ago

> We're fast approaching a dystopian Snow Crash world of all-powerful corporations, and you people are cheering it along. Walmart is uniquely set up to become the first FOQNE.

rodgerd 6y ago

It's good when companies I want to work with who or give me free candy are winning. They're my team! It's bad when Nazis and Nazi-adjacent folks don't get a platform because they're my... uh...

h0l0cube 6y ago

They want their brand recognition, brand loyalty, market share, and specifically they want a watch to compliment their Pixel phones to counter growth of Apple Watch (which locks people into buying iPhones). All those reasons are better now than later

krageon 6y ago

You've hit the nail on the head here. The only arguments in favour of these are money-oriented and therefore celebrating the fundamental move towards a dystopic future (insofar as it isn't already here, which is debatable to a painful degree). Nobody wins here, except for a very small group of already outrageously powerful and rich people. Any regular human being will at best gain nothing from this and at worst have all of their information inserted into the Google silo.