Fitbit Acquires European Luxury Smartwatch Maker Vector Watch

[MacRumors]

Fitbit has made another acquisition in the wearables market, this time buying out European luxury smartwatch maker Vector Watch for an undisclosed price.

Vector Watch only launched in March of last year offering a range of 12 smartwatch models in various fashion-conscious styles. Key features in its line-up include basic activity tracking, phone notifications, and 30-day battery life, with some third-party apps built into the interface. The London-based company announced the buyout in a statement on its website.

Today, we are happy to announce that the Vector Watch team and our software platform are joining Fitbit, the leader in the connected health and fitness market! We believe this is an important milestone as a moment when we will start building other new and amazing products, features and experiences, incorporating our unique technology and knowhow with Fitbit's experience and global community.

Vector said its integration with Fitbit would have no impact on existing customers, whose smartwatches would continue to function as usual, while technical support and warranties would be unaffected. However, new product features (software and hardware) would not be added.

The buyout comes just one month after Fitbit acquired U.S.-based Pebble for a reported $40 million, signaling the company's intention to continue to invest in software development, despite falling shares and a gloomy outlook for the overall wearables market.

Global shipments in the last quarter fell by more than half compared to last year, according to recent figures by IDC. Despite the numbers, Fitbit remains the market leader with 23 percent share, up from 21.4 percent a year ago, on the strength of its new Charge 2 fitness tracker. The Apple Watch is still the world's best-selling smartwatch, but basic wearables account for 85 percent of the market, putting Apple in fourth place overall with 4.9 percent share and 1.1 million devices shipped in the last quarter.

Article Link: Fitbit Acquires European Luxury Smartwatch Maker Vector Watch

 

[CarpalMac]

Not heard of Vector before, minus several geek points to me.
That said, that particular watch is nice looking. Am very interested to see what this marriage comes up with.

 

[knemonic]

I had it, returned it. It looks great but the screen was too dim, pixelated and worst, very little ecosystem support, barely any useful apps. So it was overpriced for its little utility.

 

[Mac 128]

Not heard of Vector before, minus several geek points to me.
That said, that particular watch is nice looking. Am very interested to see what this marriage comes up with.

I agree.

I had it, returned it. It looks great but the screen was too dim, pixelated and worst, very little ecosystem support, barely any useful apps. So it was overpriced for its little utility.

That's where Fitbit can turn it around, while allowing them to go head-to-head with Apple in the higher end, more functionality, arena. Fitbit already has a strong following, and good brand recognition. To the extent that people are willing to wear a smart watch with no luxury connotations, Fitbit will do well when their existing customer base is ready for more. And even so, who ever thought "Swatch" would sell well? And no need to even mention "Shinola" ;-)

 

[2457282]

Fitbit is buying a lot of companies and their associated technologies. The question is how well and quickly will they be able to integrate that into compelling products.

 

[Sinewave3]

I am a big Fitbit fan, but there is definitely some room for improvement in their current product line. With this acquisition and the Pebble one, I hope their trackers improve and give the Apple Watch some serious competition.

 

[moniquetx]

I had it, returned it. It looks great but the screen was too dim, pixelated and worst, very little ecosystem support, barely any useful apps. So it was overpriced for its little utility.

I got one as a Christmas present and I absolutely love it. The sell for under $200 currently. I wish the Apple Watch did not look like an oversized calculator. The Vector is very elegant and although you cannot really interact with the notifications (just view them) it works really well. Essentially, anything that is displayed on the notification center on your iPhone is also displayed on the watch (e.g, Kuna, Maps, SMS, Calendar, Mail, etc). A big plus is battery life which is truly amazing. My first out of the box charge lasted about 28 days.

 

[44267547]

Fitbit is buying a lot of companies and their associated technologies. The question is how well and quickly will they be able to integrate that into compelling products.

Those were my exact thoughts. Fit bit has something up their sleeve with purchasing Pebble and now Vector, which leads me to believe they are going to somewhere along the line of luxury fitness watches. That's a guess, to maybe move away from just sporty fitness bands and something above the Fit Bit Blaze.

 

[knemonic]

I got one as a Christmas present and I absolutely love it. The sell for under $200 currently. I wish the Apple Watch did not look like an oversized calculator. The Vector is very elegant and although you cannot really interact with the notifications (just view them) it works really well. Essentially, anything that is displayed on the notification center on your iPhone is also displayed on the watch (e.g, Kuna, Maps, SMS, Calendar, Mail, etc). A big plus is battery life which is truly amazing. My first out of the box charge lasted about 28 days.

I got mine the day it originally came out. I assume since then software support has gotten better but I didn't care for the dim, pixelated screen. Also I yearned for a touch screen after using an Apple Watch and that Watch could totally benefit from it. I'd say cut the battery life in half and add touch screen and it would be great, possibly more colors too. But Fitbit bought them means in all likeliness you won't have any support for it in a year or less, just ask pebble users.

 

[44267547]

I got mine the day it originally came out. I assume since then software support has gotten better but I didn't care for the dim, pixelated screen. Also I yearned for a touch screen after using an Apple Watch and that Watch could totally benefit from it. I'd say cut the battery life in half and add touch screen and it would be great, possibly more colors too. But Fitbit bought them means in all likeliness you won't have any support for it in a year or less, just ask pebble users.

I think Fit bit now purchasing Pebble and Vector, they're really trying to gain and control part of this market. Not necessarily that Vector and Pebble were players to begin with, but perhaps they have something else up their sleeve that would change or innovate the way wearable technology is currently.

 

[Mac 128]

I got mine the day it originally came out. I assume since then software support has gotten better but I didn't care for the dim, pixelated screen. Also I yearned for a touch screen after using an Apple Watch and that Watch could totally benefit from it. I'd say cut the battery life in half and add touch screen and it would be great, possibly more colors too. But Fitbit bought them means in all likeliness you won't have any support for it in a year or less, just ask pebble users.

You mean the way after Apple bought Beats, they dropped support for Beats 1 and forced all those customers to switch to Apple Music?

Apple even does it to their own products. Like an Apple feature or product? Don't get too used to it, because Apple may change it without notice. This is what companies do.

 

[knemonic]

I

I think Fit bit now purchasing Pebble and Vector, they're really trying to gain and control part of this market. Not necessarily that Vector and Pebble were players to begin with, but perhaps they have something else up their sleeve that would change or innovate the way wearable technology is currently.

I agree, though the fruits of these relationships won't become apparent for at least a year or two because of rnd and merging, unless Fitbit had already been in talks with top exects from those companies about how they can adopt their product timelines and tech into theirs. Hopefully this will provide a good player in the market.

 

[KUguardgrl13]

This will be interesting to watch. I had a Fitbit for a while (the Flex) but ended up switching to a Garmin (Vivofit; better app integration, uses a watch battery for much longer battery life, doesn't randomly stop working, and has more features for the price).

 

[44267547]

This will be interesting to watch. I had a Fitbit for a while (the Flex) but ended up switching to a Garmin (Vivofit; better app integration, uses a watch battery for much longer battery life, doesn't randomly stop working, and has more features for the price).

I think Fitbit is in for a major overhaul for something big. Their product line is great, but even their top of the line Blaze isn't that impressive. I think Fitbit wants to take the market away from Apple and Garmin with something that offers more premium materials and revamped software. My guess is in the next year, we should see or hear more rumors.