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Comment by Dig1t | Hacker News Reader

The reason why it's difficult for them to compete with Apple and Samsung isn't readily apparent to me. There still seems to be a large hole in the smartwatch market for a GOOD Android-compatible smartwatch. There are a lot of options, but, to me, none of them are as polished or feature-heavy as the Apple Watch. It doesn't seem that one of these companies would need access to any special internal APIs or anything to be competitive, so I don't see what Google could add other than lots of money and SWE hours.

If Google wants to compete in this space they should have been forced to build it themselves. IMO letting Fitbit die would have been better for users privacy-wise.

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I'm a long time Fitbit user and I think their products are great. From that perspective I'm just happy that they will survive.

> so I don't see what Google could add other than lots of money and SWE hours

That matters.

> IMO letting Fitbit die would have been better for users privacy-wise.

Have you seen what some companies do when they are on the brink of insolvency? They start firing engineers, best practices lapse, and they start monetizing everything.

And have you seen the EU data privacy conditions?

And finally, of the companies that could have bought them, which has a better record of keeping their users' data private then Google?

But also, as a Fitbit user, if I wanted all my data deleted I could do that, but I absolutely do not. I want it kept private, supported, and crunched by a company like Google to our mutual advantage.

Fellow long time FitBit user and agree with everything you said.

Furthermore, I pay for FitBit Premium and would strongly encourage Google to always keep FitBit a paid product/service and never monetize it via ads.

I don't have any expertise in this area, but my hunch from what I saw with Apple vs WhatsApp, is that in the long run sticking with paid products and not switching to Ads is better for success. Also, likely a lot harder to build up a base of paying users and if you throw that away would be a colossal mistake.

Anyway, I'm not a business expert but am a passionate FitBit user and very happy about this acquisition because just like you I was worried for their survival.

Again, Apple has a much better track record than Google when it comes to privacy. I can’t believe I’m defending them here, but honestly they’ve been the only tech giant that hasn’t sold out every bit of your personal info they had to make a quick buck. I suppose Netflix might be the other one but (a) I don’t know for a fact and (b) they aren’t exactly the fitness brand.

What about the spot it started out in? A watch that keeps track of some vital signs. I don't want an Android-compatible smartwatch. I don't want a smartwatch at all. I want a simple "health" device.

I got a new fitbit for Christmas because I couldn't even initialize it without installing their app on my smartphone. I don't want their app on my phone. I don't want it to report all my info to their servers. I don't want it to have access to my gps location, which is might be reporting in. My old fitbit doesn't need any of that at all, and I don't see the need for a new one (that would meet my needs) to, either.

I agree with you here, a simple health tracker is awesome. But also it seems to me that Google has a massive incentive to get as much data about you as possible. Which means releasing devices that collect as much biometric (and location) based data as possible, and setting defaults (just like Maps location history being turned on by default) that will automatically send all of this to Google servers. And as usual with Google, the vast majority will probably be sending their health data to Google unwittingly.

The killer feature for me which lead me to me switching away was Fitbit Pay. They just don't have the take up by banks that the competition (Apple and Samsung) have. Maybe that would have changed, but if they integrate Google Pay instead, I may switch back.

I much prefer contactless payment with my phone anyway. I usually find it very awkward trying to position my wrist near the NFC reader on the terminal.

I’ve always thought they should put the NFC chip on the bottom of the wrist rather than on the top - that seems like a much less awkward position.

> There still seems to be a large hole in the smartwatch market for a GOOD Android-compatible smartwatch.

In order for there to be a market, both sides have to exist: sellers and buyers. I'm not convinced Android users have the appetite for multi-hundred-dollar accessories the same way Apple users do, and given Apple's engineering skill and vertical integration, nobody is going to sell a smartwatch that's as good for less.

I’d buy the top-end Apple Watch today if it was compatible with my Android phone; as-is, the slate of compatible watches are too poor for me to bother with any of them.

Though, I’m one person, so that doesn’t invalidate your point.

Garmin seems to find plenty of customers willing to buy high end smart watches that cost even more than Apple watches. Many of those Garmin devices are paired with Android phones.

As one data point I just spent $1300 on a new top end Garmin watch and use it with Android.

Yeah, just picked up a Fitbit Sense since it's on sale at Costco. It's almost great, but has some serious flaws. The capacitive button is dumb. Not allowing me to upload music is dumb. The processor is slightly underpowered or the software needs optimizations because occasionally it has serious lag when swiping on the watch face. Having the watch accidentally turn on with full brightness while I'm trying to sleep just sucks.

Other than that, it's a pretty nice device. Unfortunately it requires a subscription to get the most out of it.

Unpopular opinion here, but I think the Fitbit versa (from 2018) was/is better than Apple Watch (latest) in significant ways, even when paired with iPhone.

I replaced my versa with Apple Watch when the versa died. I don’t necessarily regret it, but it didn’t feel like an upgrade and came with significant downsides.

In particular, Fitbit gives far more control over notifications, especially for built-in apps like messages. Fitbit makes media controls easily accessible - on Apple Watch, they’re always moving and hard to get back to especially during a workout. My main use case is skipping podcast commercials, so not being able to do that quickly is a problem.

Battery life was much better on the versa. It also charged faster, so it would almost always be done charging after a shower, Apple Watch only sometimes is.

Tldr there is definitely room to deliver a better product than Apple’s. Whether or not Google is capable of doing that is a different question that I won’t address.

I love my Versa 3. I charge it for ~20 minutes every couple days, and I've literally never seen it below 50%.

>...media controls easily accessible - on Apple Watch, they’re always moving and hard to get back to especially during a workout.

Swipe right from workout screen.

(Finger moves right to left... not sure if that is swipe right or left :)

Thank you so much! I’ve had my watch for 4 months, I don’t know why I didn’t see that earlier. I have been going to the app switcher this whole time.

One other thing is the big (non knob) button brings up three apps and somehow I have it so now playing is always one of them. Can’t remember how I set that up though. (Doesn’t help when someone keeps texting me and I want to stop the audio.)

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