Reuters is reporting a rumour that Google’s parent company Alphabet has made an offer to purchase Fitbit.
This may be an attempt by Google to gain market share in the wearables gadget sector because watches running Google’s Android Wear operating system have not been very successful in terms of sales.
Mind you Fitbit is also facing challenges, at the high-end buyers prefer Apple smart watches and at the lower end cheap fitness band options from companies like Xiaomi and Huawei are gaining ground fast.
Until now, Google has not released any wearables or smartwatches directly, like it does with it’s Pixel range of phones.
As a Fitbit user I’m not enthusiastic about Google buying the company.
Google doesn’t have a good track record of acquiring hardware companies and helping them to succeed at even greater levels.
Its Pixel range of phones always have interesting software features but are behind the trail blazers like Huawei and Samsung in terms of cutting edge hardware functionality and historically have not sold very few units worldwide compared to Apple, Samsung, Huawei etc.
We shall have to wait and see what the repercussions are over time if this rumour solidifies and Alphabet does buy Fitbit.
