Forbes November 11, 2019
Google’s announcement last week that it would acquire Fitbit for $2.1 billion was not particularly surprising for many observers who follow the smart home, wearable and IoT category. After all, Google has demonstrated on several occasions that it was willing to “buy” itself into the hardware business. It acquired Nest Labs in 2014 for $3.2 billion with the strategic desire to leverage Nest’s know-how in the smart home space. This ultimately led to products including smart speakers, smart displays, streaming devices, thermostats (the original Nest smart home device), security systems and smart doorbells under the Google Nest brand.
It’s all about the OS
Not surprisingly, the acquisition announcement immediately ignited substantial privacy concerns in the media due to Google’s overwhelming...