Comment by breck | Hacker News Reader

Comment by breck | Hacker News Reader

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The authors of this article are complete phonies.

The people at FitBit have been busting their ass for over a decade to revolutionize healthcare and medicine. They deserve the Nobel Prize for medicine. The people who wrote this article have done shit to help.

Where was this "CEPR" group when FITB stock was being shorted and Apple was coming for their throat?

I get that Google is doing lots of bad things now. But the one, and only thing you should be looking at if you actually care about that is #AbolishingImaginaryProperty laws. Everything else is either just done for show or complete ignorance.

I hate to see FitBit having to deal with this crap. They are literally putting a doctor on everyone's wrist (and if you don't get why that is the case, you should go get one and do your research). It's going to completely change the world.

If these people are truly concerned, great—get their governments to buy FitBit for $10B, don't sacrifice our health for your egos.

As a Fitbit fan that just deleted my account to keep the data from Google...

I'm not sure where you get this "They are literally putting a doctor on everyone's wrist" thing. I had a Fitbit Ionic, their most expensive smartwatch at the time, and it was a somewhat helpful heartrate monitor. It had an SpO2 sensor built in which was advertised, but it didn't work in the years I had the watch on my wrist, and only recently became an available feature, around when Apple added the same to theirs.

And Apple put an ECG machine on people's wrists. Even my SO's Watch SE, which lacks the fancier new sensors is lightyears beyond where Fitbit is.

And Google will destroy Fitbit. If you think Fitbit is as revolutionary as you say, than you should be supporting every possible way to prevent Google from adding it to their graveyard.

> And Google will destroy Fitbit. If you think Fitbit is as revolutionary as you say, than you should be supporting every possible way to prevent Google from adding it to their graveyard.

You could be right about this, but Apple absolutely was cleaning FitBit's clock and I think if they didn't make a big move they might have gone bankrupt. It's just so, so, so incredibly difficult to pack billions of pieces perfectly into a tiny device that people can wear all day on their wrists and make hundreds of millions of them. I hope it goes well with Goog. The world needs more of these.

> I had a Fitbit Ionic,

The Ionic was good, the Versa 2 a big step up (haven't gotten the new one yet but will soon).

I also have an Apple Watch SE. The Apple Watch is impressive, but for health I still prefer FitBit hands down. The sleep data is absolutely essential, and the ~1 day battery life in the Apple Watch pales next to the ~1 week in FitBit. I guess I could get 2 apple watches, and swap them before bedtime, but rather just wear the fitbit. I don't care about having the web on my wrist or videos, I just want health stuff.

> "They are literally putting a doctor on everyone's wrist"

It's all about the trends. At first remember, ~10 years ago, it was just step counting (and lousy at that). Now there are what, 15 - 20 sensors in that thing? Heart rate, blood oxygen, temperature, motion, etc.

Apple is doing amazing things here too. Garmin as well. And FitBit. They all are doing heroic work here. It's changing healthcare, and we're not even at the 1% level yet. I've spent a few years in medical research, this is the future of medical research.

I probably would've bought a Versa 2 had Google not acquired. Unfortunately, Google being anywhere in range of a product makes it radioactive.

I'd definitely agree the battery life on Fitbit is a huge deal, I used to get a week out of my Ionic, though as it has aged, it's good for less than a day (replaceable batteries needs to be a thing again in tech). The sleep data was pretty interesting, although I don't feel like it was ever actionable for me.

I absolutely think there are opportunities for health (in another comment, I talk about a personal experience with my Fitbit), but Google will not be the one leading the charge on that. Their focus is, and will always be, ad revenue.

You could be right. I am also worried about a FitBit under Google. But no one came up with a better alternative and the competition was too great. I would have loved if FitBit could have remained independent. It would have taken a true believer like an Elon to make it happen.

> I've spent a few years in medical research, this is the future of medical research.

Sadly, I think the real money will be in using health data for fine-grained insurance pricing. "Oh, you want our preferred rates? Then wear a FitBit/Apple Watch and let us see your data."

To play devil’s advocate, why should the active healthy subsidize the lifestyles of the sedentary? It makes a lot of sense for people to pay less for health insurance based on their fitness.

you have redirected to a false dichotomy: at no point was fitness ever discussed in this thread.

there are probably all sorts of involuntary health conditions that can be exposed via these devices that trying to make this a vice vs non-vice debate about "lifestyles" isn't useful, similar to how car insurance companies can infer that you go to the liquor store 2 times a week despite the sensor ostensibly being for things like acceleration and maximum speed.

because the endpoint of perfect price discrimination on health insurance is that the people who actually need it can't afford it or won't get approved, and the people who dont need it get it. It's already happening in some cases and makes the whole idea of insurance completely pointless.

"The data indicates you may be at a higher risk for something expensive, so we're going to start charging you more"

Apple put an ECG machine on people's wrists.

Are there enough sensors yet for lie detection? Pulse, check. Respiration, check. EEG, check. Voice stress, check. Rapid eye movements, check. Voice recognition, check.

Look for this soon in employer provided apps.

Would I be wrong in guessing you are a Fitbit shareholder who is unhappy they decided to sell to Google?

I was a shareholder (sold when they got acquired for ~$7), as well as GARMIN and APPLE (I'm obviously long on the whole wearable space as it is the future of healthcare).

I took a bath on FitBit (I kept buying buying buying and so maybe ended up cost averaging in at $9 or $10), but I'd do it again in a heart beat. They are pioneering future medicine. In 50 years people are going to look at medicine pre wearables like we look at healthcare in the 1800's.

I was very happy FitBit sold to Google because I want them to survive, and unfortunately in this current tech regime the only way to do that is join one of the big players.

It just makes me sick when people who are partly responsible for the current anti-competitive marketplace make phony statements pointing the blame at companies like Goog, and heroes like FitBit are caught in the middle.

I enjoyed using Fitbit for years but came to the realization the calorie estimates were laughably off and that, for my body type and movement habits at least- the steps were inacurrate.

I wouldn't call them pioneering future medicine- it seemed to me the idea of the company was great but they had to have had a flippant attitude to the accuracy of the data provided.

Let us distinguish the statement “wearables will impact healthcare” from “FitBit puts a doctor on your wrist”.

> I was very happy FitBit sold to Google because I want them to survive

Perhaps you aren't familiar with the fate of nearly every other acquisition Google has made.

https://killedbygoogle.com/

https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/

Yeah, it could go poorly. But there's also Google Maps and YouTube. (Although both seem to be getting worse nowadays :( )

The other day I tried like 10 times on mobile and web (and in incognito) to get Maps to show me a map of where all the Weinerschnitzel locations were in the US (you'd think Google MAPS could do that right), and no matter how far I zoomed out on any device, if I hit enter on the search or hit "Search this area" it zoomed me back in on my region and said 'oh right there'. NO GOOGLE that's not what I wanted at any point...thanks for assuming you know what information I want, again, even in incognito. "directions to work campus" always sends me over a toll bridge when I have no tolls selected as my default!

Maps, as far as I'm concerned, is a dead product already. It won't show me the closest local places at times, or refuses to show me other locations. It editorializes my searches, and gives me bad directions. I quite honestly cannot wait for a better alternative in an app. I wish HERE Maps had survived the Nokia acquisition.

MapQuest got my back though. :)

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