What you need to know
- Although Google completed its acquisition of Fitbit in 2021, the wearable brand has remained largely independent until recently.
- Last week, the company closed the standalone Fitbit.com store and instead directed customers to make future purchases through the Google Store.
- It’s one of the final nails in the coffin for Fitbit, which is now taking a backseat to Google after once being a dominant company in the wearable space.
Since finalizing the Fitbit acquisition several years ago, Google has continually integrated the brand’s products, services and underlying technologies into its portfolio. Both the Google Pixel Watch and the Pixel Watch 2 are clearly based on Fitbit’s design and technology, for example with curved edges and a minimalist form factor. Fitbit also borrowed things from Google, such as the “Material You” design language. However, Fitbit has maintained a fairly high degree of independence from Google until recently.
After some big changes this month, it appears that this run is officially over. In early April, Google overhauled the Fitbit app to better align with Material You, particularly on the sleep pages. The overwhelming majority of Fitbit users didn’t like the move, as evidenced by many social media posts and even some emails I received directly from users.
Now Google has decided to close the Fitbit.com store, with 9to5Google first noticing the change over the weekend. If you try to purchase a Fitbit device on the native Fitbit website, you will be redirected to the Google Store to complete your purchase. “Fitbit is now part of Google, so your checkout and purchase will be completed in the Google Store,” one banner explains.
This move isn’t exactly surprising, as Google has continued to integrate Fitbit into the company throughout 2024. First, the Fitbit and Google help centers were merged in January. Then, in March, Google added more wearables and bracelets to the Google Store. At this point the writing was on the wall. Fitbit’s time as an independent brand was coming to an end.
While it’s easy to criticize Google for the changes to Fitbit, it’s also easy to see that the brand, or at least its hardware, is taking a backseat in Google’s wearable strategy. People just don’t buy Fitbits – and smartbands in general – like they used to. It makes sense that Fitbit’s future will live on through Google products, and we can look to another major technology acquisition to predict what that future might look like.
People are increasingly turning to smartwatches instead of smartbands
Market habits change, and that’s partly why Fitbit wouldn’t survive if it tried to maintain the status quo. In the early days of wearables, people were completely dependent on small and sporty smartbands. Today, consumers prefer smartwatches to provide them with more information and utility on their wrist. Even minimalist buyers now have smart rings as a more attractive alternative to the traditional smart bands. I’ve seen this in my own purchasing habits too. My first wearable was a Fitbit Charge HR, and now I have a huge Apple Watch Ultra on my wrist in 2024.
The numbers also support these anecdotes. In the fourth quarter of 2022, a Canalys report found that the smart band market experienced a double-digit decline in a fourth quarter for the first time ever. The decline was 18%, which is very rare for a fourth quarter that typically sees good sales due to the holiday season. While the market recovered slightly in 2023, according to a recent report, smartbands are still losing out to smartwatches. In the second quarter of 2023, the market share of basic bracelets was lower than that of basic watches and smartwatches.
Additionally, a March 24 IDC analysis lists smart wristbands as the only wearable category expected to see year-over-year declines in sales. Smartwatches, earwear, glasses and rings all have positive prospects.
Fitbit made smartwatches, but they weren’t very good compared to the best smartwatches, such as those from Samsung, Garmin, and Apple. With Google now making its own smartwatches with Fitbit technology, Fitbit’s main products are smartbands – which consumers appear to be moving away from. Google’s recent decisions suggest that Fitbit appears to be a lower priority than some of its other hardware offerings, and that makes sense when you look at the state of the wearable wristband market.
We have experienced such major acquisitions before
So what does the future hold for Fitbit? While the brand is unlikely to be Google’s highest-priority hardware division – it will be part of the Pixel family of devices – a complete shutdown isn’t necessarily expected either. To get an idea of what Fitbit’s future looks like at Google, we can examine how Apple handled its acquisition of Beats about a decade ago.
Apple has partially adopted Beats for its software. The streaming service Beats Music was the foundation for Apple Music. There’s a parallel here to what’s happening with Google and Fitbit, as Fitbit’s software is still very much alive and used for fitness and health features on Pixel watches. Eventually, Apple closed the Beats online store and redirected buyers to the Apple online store instead. The company introduced AirPods and its own range of earbuds and headphones, seemingly replacing Beats.
And yet Beats is still around eight years old after Apple released the first-generation AirPods. Sure, the brand isn’t as dominant and ubiquitous as it once was, but new Beats headphones and earbuds are still being released today. I expect Google to follow a similar strategy to Fitbit. We won’t see Fitbit ever being the top wearable brand again, but we will see Fitbit tech Power Pixel products as well as more subtle Fitbit wearable releases.
In other words: Fitbit is now fully integrated into Google, and that has and will continue to bring big changes. That’s partly because consumers aren’t as intrigued by Fitbit’s offerings as they were in the past, and partly because Google has its own priorities. But Fitbit isn’t going away and will likely live on as a small part of Google for a long time.