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Comment by Sysreq1 | Hacker News Reader

How do you say, “That’s a bingo!”

Google isn’t buying Fitbit to improve Fitbit, Google is acquiring a company to gain their experience in the wearables space to compete with Apple and Samsung. I suspect Google thinks AppleWatch is helping them erode the Android market share and/or preventing switchers from moving to Pixel.

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The only thing useful that Fitbit has is marketshare (declining), community and maybe patents. From my experience with their products, you do not want their experience in the wearables space ... It is not going to help to compete with Apple and Samsung.

You’re confusing the product with production. Google has plenty of product people that can tell them what to build. FitBit has engineers, hardware designers, production capabilities, suppliers, distribution, as well as the ownership of name ‘Bit’ in the wearables space. Makes perfect sense if Google is trying to make a rapid push into a new market.

>Google isn’t buying Fitbit to improve Fitbit, Google is acquiring a company to gain their experience in the wearables space

I imagine they're also interested simply as a defensive move: if they don't buy fitbit, maybe samsung or apple does.

Fitbit has nothing that Samsung or Apple need (except perhaps some patents for protection for defensive litigation).

They have marketshare

What’s marketshare without profitability?

Isn't that the situation Uber is in. They surely seem to be doing fine.

They were able to get billions from private investors that knew they could pawn it off into the public market. What happens when the public market doesn’t have the stomach to give them more money in a secondary offering and they can’t get loans from banks?

I’m surprised google can buy anything at this point and not foul up on anti trust... but I guess if there’s a non business they could buy this would be it. But one has to wonder how this played out because there rationale is about as terrible as Apple buying beats — I haven’t seen a Fitbit in ages but I do see Apple watches and on people who probably are carrying around two grand in Apple products when three years ago weren’t even wearing a Casio much less a Fitbit. With this and the hyped supremacy post, one has to wonder if they’re worried abut the pace of things over there in Mountain View..

As a Pixel owner, the ear buds and watch options are markedly worse and make me consider switching back.

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