It has been three years since Google accomplished its acquisition of Fitbit. Since then, the corporate has launched three new smartwatches beneath the Pixel model, together with the Pixel Watch 3 at today’s Made By Google event. In the meantime, Fitbit’s not launched a single new smartwatch because the unceremonious announcement of the Sense 2 and Versa 4 two years in the past. The writing has been on the wall for years that Fitbit won’t make smartwatches anymore, as a substitute specializing in lower-profile exercise trackers that final lengthy. Engadget can affirm that that is certainly true shifting ahead.
In an interview with the senior director of product administration for Pixel Wearables Sandeep Waraich, I requested whether or not we’d ever see one other Fitbit-branded smartwatch anytime quickly. Waraich stated “Pixel Watch is our smartwatch a part of the portfolio.” He confirmed that shifting ahead all the things from Fitbit would concentrate on the extra minimalistic, long-lasting trackers the model has turn out to be synonymous with.
Whereas the Sense 2 and Versa 4 will proceed to be accessible out there, a Google spokesperson stated “Pixel Watches are our subsequent iteration of smartwatch for Fitbit.”
As for the gadgets Fitbit continues to make, “trackers is the place customers clearly inform us they need one thing discreet,” Waraich stated. “They need longer battery life, they need a easy expertise and we’re very pleased with our Encourage line.”
Waraich additionally shed some gentle on how the Google and Fitbit groups have collaborated to construct Pixel watches, referencing the previous’s AI prowess and the latter’s established experience in decoding heart-rate sensor information for better insights. In accordance with him, Google introduced its experience in machine studying, offering “superior fashions that in any other case most likely externally weren’t available.” Fitbit, after all, had deep data on issues like information and sign seize and the way that translated into how your fingers are shifting or what you are doing. “HIIT has a really completely different coronary heart price algorithm [and] implications than a operating exercise,” Waraich defined.
There’s little doubt that the Fitbit model stays useful to Google and the business at massive, given the very fact its identify is mainly the catch-all noun for exercise trackers. Whereas it may be jarring to see the Fitbit identify and app in gadgets just like the Pixel Watch, the place integrations ought to really feel extra seamless and unified, Waraich advised me “it isn’t an app in Pixel Watch. It is deeply built-in at a system degree.”
Exterior of the Pixel portfolio, the Fitbit app and Fitbit Premium each nonetheless exist to the big chunk of the inhabitants that need one thing easy that may assist them keep on high of their total well being. With the trackers and Pixel watches having now matured into gadgets that may log your exercise very properly, Waraich stated “There’s a super alternative when it comes to going from monitoring to teaching, real-time steering included.”
Time for everybody’s favourite buzzword and development for 2024: AI. With the Pixel Watch 3, Fitbit Premium customers can get AI-generated personalized exercises primarily based on their exercise and restoration. Of all of the options Fitbit Premium has supplied (and paywalled) previously, this appears like a more-suitable use of AI and charging for it. Fitbit and Fitbit Premium are unlikely to be going away, and whereas we might not see a Fitbit-branded smartwatch once more, this appears like a wise transfer.
Make amends for all of the information from Google’s Pixel Watch 3 launch event right here!
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