The Google owned Fitbit operation, that has been plagued with problems of late, has moved to drop its products in several Countries with the future of their Australian operation not known at this stage.
So far, they have pulled out of selling their product in several Countries across Latin America, Europe, and Asia with more set to be announced.
Despite no longer making products available in certain countries, Fitbit claims customers will still receive support in the way of software releases.
One of the early adopters of devices for tracking movement such as running and swimming.
Google acquired Fitbit following a $$2.1-billion-dollar acquisition in 2021.
The deal was held up for some time by the EU who after several investigations approved the deal, after Google made a series of commitments about its planned operation of Fitbit and use of its health data.
At the time Google’s then hardware chief Rick Osterloh said the acquisition was “about devices, not data.”
Emphasizing this point, he reiterated Google’s commitments about how it will handle the acquisition in markets around the world. These pledges include not using Fitbit users’ health and wellness data for Google’s ad tracking.
The Verge said ‘All in all, this is yet another growing pain in the Google-Fitbit integration. Fitbit has long been a global brand, even though it’s struggled since smartwatches started outpacing fitness trackers in popularity’.
You’d think this would be a way for Google to maintain that global customer base. However, if it is indeed the case that Google is trying to scale down Fitbit to Pixel availability, it seems to be another sign of which lineup it sees as leading its wearable ambitions and resources. Given Pixel’s more limited global availability.
The product is widely sold at JB Hi Fi, Harvey Norman and The Good Guys.
