In early 2021, Google completed the purchase of Fitbit for $2.1 billion. The Mountain View giant set its sights on the fitness and health trackers company with plans to implement its technology in future Pixel Watch devices. Now, Google is killing the Fitbit smartwatches, although the iconic brand will not vanish completely.
Google is killing Fitbit smartwatches; simpler trackers still alive
Google’s period under the helm of Fitbit has had its ups and downs. The company has released nice products with the usual reliability, but they also lost some key features previously available. Customers of Fitbit products suspected that Google wanted to save some functions for its Pixel wearables. Sandeep Waraich, senior director of product management for Pixel Wearables, kind of confirmed the theory.
Waraich revealed to Engadget Google’s plans regarding the wearables segment. According to the executive, there will be no more Fitbit-branded smartwatches in the future. From now on, Fitbit fans will have to turn to Pixel products if they want a smartwatch with the same “spirit” and reliability. Pixel Watch devices go beyond classic Fitbit products thanks to the additional Wear OS possibilities. However, the company developed activity and health monitoring algorithms based on Fitbit technology.
Regardless, the Fitbit brand will continue to exist, at least for now. Waraich said that there will still be “minimalistic, long-lasting trackers” under the brand. These types of products are what made Fitbit famous. So, Google wants to maintain the original spirit in current and future devices. These types of wearables get rid of multiple advanced features in favor of longer battery life and ease of use. So, suspicions from Fitbit product users about the reason for the loss of features were not far off.
Google combined AI power and Fitbit experience for Pixel Watch products
The representative also talked about the collaboration between the two companies. Google, as an AI expert, brought its power in terms of machine learning to get the best performance out of the Fitbit health monitoring technology. It also took advantage of the latter’s experience in data capture and processing to give useful outputs to the user. Likewise, Fitbit was an expert in tuning algorithms according to each type of physical activity to track. All that knowledge was fundamental to developing all the advanced features of the Pixel Watch lineup.
So, while Google is killing Fitbit smartwatches, fitness and health trackers will remain in force. You can even expect some new models in the future as part of the Inspire lineup. The company launched the Versa 4 and Sense 2 in 2022 as the latest Fitbit-branded smartwatches. There’s also a “spin-off” product for kids called Fitbit Ace LTE. Meanwhile, the Pixel Watch 3 series is Google’s latest device in the segment.
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