Is Google FIT enough to catch Apple?

Follow Us Get the newsletter Happy Monday everyone. It's Mark Gurman here. Today, the Apple Watch is really the only smartwatch that matters. It's so far ahead of anything running Google's WearOS software and models from Samsung that it's easy to forget Google got into this market before Apple. Google announced WearOS, known as Android Wear at the time, with a plan to do what it did for smartphones: create an operating system that runs millions of devices, but leave the gnarly manufacturing to others. Its debut months before the anticipated September 2014 launch of the Apple Watch was designed to pull the rug out from under Google's Silicon Valley rival. WearOS even powered some fairly successful watches like the Motorola 360. But over the past few years, the effort languished, while the Apple Watch is dominating the fast-growing wearables market.  This left a hole in Google's strategy. Even with a growing hardware division, the company has struggled to get its artificial intelligence smarts on people's wrists. Paying $2.1 billion for a flailing Fitbit -- as the internet giant announced on Friday morning -- is Google's mea culpa for falling so far behind in consumer hardware. It's not just smartwatches. The company is launching its first AirPods rival in 2020 while Apple is already on its third version since 2016. Google's Pixel smartphones are good, but not good enough to sell in vast quantities like the iPhone.  Fitbit's smartwatches are mediocre. The Versa has a limited selection of apps and feels cheap compared to the Apple Watch. It does track sleep well and manages to work with both iPhones and Android handsets. But those advantages will likely evaporate by the time Google launches its first Fitbit-based watch. Apple is planning to add sleep tracking to its Watch and the device is becoming more independent from the iPhone, making it a potential option for Android phone users. Still, Google can fix the app problem by adding the Google Play store to Fitbit smartwatches. And the internet giant has developed some hardware-design and supply chain know-how sincelaunching its consumer gadget business about three years ago.  A more ambitious goal: Take Fitbit's expertise in fitness-tracking software, heart-rate sensors and related data, then combine that in inventive ways with Google's AI technology, including its digital assistant. Siri is one of the Apple Watch's shortfalls, and voice assistants on the wrist is an area where Google could quickly pass Apple. That sounds great in a newsletter. It will be difficult to pull off. Fitbit recently paired Amazon's Alexa digital assistant to its latest Versa watch, but the reviews have been mixed.  Unfortunately, for Google, it is trying to add one struggling gadget businesses to another, and hoping the result is more than two. With Apple so far ahead, that's some hard math. -- Mark Gurman Sponsored Content by Darktrace As organizations embrace cloud services, the attack surface is increasing. Meanwhile, cloud-based threats are fast and unpredictable, often outpacing existing defenses. But cyber AI is changing the game. Thousands of companies use AI to detect and respond to advanced attackers in the cloud, before they do damage. Learn what's missing in cloud security and how cyber AI can help.   And here's what you need to know in global technology news: Hold on! The Fitbit-Google deal still has to be approved by antitrust regulators. Tech M&A like this is getting a lot more scrutiny, party on concern that these companies are "robot vacuum cleaners" when it comes to data. Apple's TV+ video streaming service launched Friday. But there are only a handful of shows right now and no back catalog. The company also asked for more tariff waivers, and promoted an interesting group of executives.  The U.S. government launched a national security review of the popular music-video app TikTok, which is owned by China's ByteDance Inc. Some Googlers have protested a controversial hire, and are upset after some of their complaints were removed from internal message boards. And "Incognito" mode comes to Google Maps.   For coffee addicts, Starbucks launched its first mini store in New York, going all-in on mobile ordering and quick pickups.   Like Bloomberg's Fully Charged? Subscribe for unlimited access to trusted, data-based journalism in 120 countries around the world and gain expert analysis from exclusive daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close. Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can't find anywhere else. Learn more.   You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Fully Charged newsletter. Unsubscribe | Bloomberg.com | Contact Us Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022