Is Fitbit slowly dying out? The question has arisen since Google, owner of the brand of connected watches and bracelets, puts more emphasis on its Pixel Watch, to the detriment of Fitbit products. This hypothesis has just been confirmed by the revelations of The Informed, which indicates that the Fitbit subsidiary in France closed in January. The antennas located in Germany and Sweden suffered the same fate.
This reduction in Fitbit’s visibility comes as no surprise, given that Google has leveraged the wearables brand’s technologies extensively to develop its own Pixel Watch. The American firm has thus relied in particular on Fitbit’s expertise in data processing to measure the form of the user and his ability to do physical exercise, or to analyze his sleep.
Fitbit fades in favor of the Pixel Watch
If the Pixel Watch was launched last October with a six-month subscription to Fitbit Premium, the closure of Fitbit’s European subsidiaries does not bode well for the future. Gradually, the brand, bought by Google in 2021 for 2.1 billion dollars, is giving way to watches from the Mountain View firm, which wants to harmonize its Pixel offer, made up of smartphones and connected watches.
In this context, Fitbit sees its strike force decline within Google. Nevertheless, it has not yet said its last word, and continues to develop its range of connected watches, at the top of which sits the Sense. Version 2, launched in the fall of 2022, has the delicate task of taking on Google’s Pixel Watch, which borrows its technologies and services, but is distinguished by its Wear OS system, which Fitbit precisely does not use. Google has obviously already chosen its workhorse to compete with its Californian rival’s Apple Watch.