Finally, Google confirmed the speculations on the purchase of Fitbit by announcing that they are buying the fitness company for $ 2.1 billion. This acquisition was being reported a few days ago when news about Google's intentions first emerged on the Internet. The situation was viewed controversially by experts, as some sites were optimistic and others expressed concern.

The recent merger points to a possible attempt by Google to maximize efforts in the smartwatches market. The company already has Google Fit and Wear OS for other brands' devices, but has not offered the device itself to the public yet.

Google's products in operation do not offer real competitiveness against Apple Watch and Samsung, which dominates this market. The company has already made a necessary change in its systems to improve its appeal to users of these two major brands but has not yet reached the threshold of the market leaders in this segment.

The purchase of Fitbit seems to be what was missing for the company to advance in the world of wearables now they have access to toolkits capable of offering users a product of excellence as Apple and Garmin, points out Rick Osterloh, head of the hardware department of Google.

"By working closely with Fitbit's team of experts and bringing together the best AI, software, and hardware, we can help encourage innovation in wearables and create products to benefit even more people around the world," says Osterloh.

Due to the amount paid by Google, it can be assumed that the company is interested in using all of the hardware already produced by Fitbit and focus solely on improving its healthcare software, or perhaps creating a new one.

Some sites have pointed to the benefits that such a merger can bring to users. Fitbit has a lot to offer to Wear OS because it has over 28 million active profiles that are already trained to use the application to improve health. By having access to these insights, Google can stand up to the best smartwatches and fitness apps on the market.

A further detail that can help Google and raise its bar is the battery issue. Fitbit is the only company that was able to launch devices with the longest battery life, such as Ionic and Versa. They can stay connected for 4 to 5 days, surpassing even the powerful Apple Watch and its autonomy of 18 hours. Until the recent Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 reaches approximately two days.

Despite these benefits, some people believe that the purchase by Google can bring problems for Fitbit users. An example of this is the issue of the virtual assistant. The current Versa 2 features Amazon's Alexa, and Google already has Google Assistant on the market.

The expectation is that Alexa will give way to Google Assistant over time, but some believe that the Amazon assistant will not be gone completely since Google is announcing that users will have the option to choose which one to use, as well as decide what to do with their data already gathered in Fitbit.

This is another issue of concern because users are concerned that Google will use the information collected from Fitbit to generate health ads for them. However, Rick Osterloh clarified that this will not happen.

"Fitbit's health and wellness data will not be used for Google ads. And we'll give Fitbit users the option to review, move or delete their data," says Google's Hardware Manager.