What if Microsoft bought FitBit?

[bulls96]

that would be huge i think. i think they have the cash to do it.

​thoughts?

 

[iamakii]

Yes and no. Yes, it will make MS band better. No, it will kill competition. But still, they can just support in the background and make partnerships like what they are doing.

 

[sjjones]

no point , I think MS will catch up with hardware and software pretty quickly

 

[dorelse]

I think Microsoft is hoping (encouraging) FitBit & others to adopt the technology in their Band...they get the ecosystem without having to buy anyone, and it grows the Microsoft Health platform...that's the real endgame for Microsoft...

 

[Trill Gates]

Normally I'd say yes, but everything MSFT has bought lately has taken much longer to advance and innovate. Look at Nokia for example before MSFT bought them they were consistently pumping out new and bold attractive phones (1020, 1520,920/925/928,Icon/930) because they a were phone company who needed to sell hardware to survive. Now that Microsoft is paying the bills to keep the lights on for the Nokia handset division, all that competitive urgency has been lost.


In hind sight I kinda wish Microsoft had loaned Nokia the money it needed to fix itself at a low interest rate with the caveat being that Nokia could only make phones that ran on Windows Phone. An outright purchase by a stable rich company like Microsoft slows everything down.


Answer to your question: I think Microsoft should sign a partnership/licensing deal with Fitbit, not buy them out completely.

 

[jmshub]

^ Microsoft had loaned Nokia 1-2 billion euros.

 

[Trill Gates]

@jmshub Ya but it wasn't with the same clauses which I outlined..

 

[DroidUser42]

Microsoft Health platform...that's the real endgame for Microsoft...

I agree that's their real end game. Making sure consumers have multiple choices that lead back to their product is best for them.

 

[undisputed n00b]

Normally I'd say yes, but everything MSFT has bought lately has taken much longer to advance and innovate. Look at Nokia for example before MSFT bought them they were consistently pumping out new and bold attractive phones (1020, 1520,920/925/928,Icon/930) because they a were phone company who needed to sell hardware to survive. Now that Microsoft is paying the bills to keep the lights on for the Nokia handset division, all that competitive urgency has been lost.


In hind sight I kinda wish Microsoft had loaned Nokia the money it needed to fix itself at a low interest rate with the caveat being that Nokia could only make phones that ran on Windows Phone. An outright purchase by a stable rich company like Microsoft slows everything down.


Answer to your question: I think Microsoft should sign a partnership/licensing deal with Fitbit, not buy them out completely.

Its not that the Nokia guys no longer have the urge to be competitive, its that they got infected by Microsoft's stupidity of never wanting to take risks and that's why we don't have any flagship or innovative devices anymore. We saw that happen more recently with the Xbox One where the retards in Microsoft infected the Xbox team and that's why they botched their announcement and PR of the console and then went back on their vision of the future. The Xbox team used to take major risks and they usually paid off like Kinect. Everybody expected Kinect to fail hard, but it ended up getting the Guinness world record for being the world's fastest selling consumer electronic product and also became one of the most innovative products to ever come out of Microsoft.

 

[Trill Gates]

Its not that the Nokia guys no longer have the urge to be competitive, its that they got infected by Microsoft's stupidity of never wanting to take risks and that's why we don't have any flagship or innovative devices anymore. We saw that happen more recently with the Xbox One where the retards in Microsoft infected the Xbox team and that's why they botched their announcement and PR of the console and then went back on their vision of the future. The Xbox team used to take major risks and they usually paid off like Kinect. Everybody expected Kinect to fail hard, but it ended up getting the Guinness world record for being the world's fastest selling consumer electronic product and also became one of the most innovative products to ever come out of Microsoft.

No it's not a knock on Nokia's design team and engineers it's a knock on Microsoft being so rich and now owning Nokia. Before Microsoft owned Nokia, the lifeblood of the Nokia brand depended on them selling phones, which meant they had to continue to reinvent and innovate to keep Nokia competitive and afloat. If pre-Microsoft Nokia was this slow to roll out phones they'd have gone bankrupt a long rime ago. Microsoft is so financially stable that there's no rush to pump out phones because the livelihood of Microsoft doesn't begin and end at their smartphone sales.