On Thursday, Google announced their latest move of buying the smartwatch tech from Fossil group at a price of $40 million. Google is planning to take a step further in their smartwatch category by this collaboration; which will increase their influence in the tech market.
Google has been rumored to be working on their self-branded smartwatch since August 2018. Latest reports state that the research and development team of Fossil’s smartwatch category will be working in collab with Google. As per the terms of this deal, Google will acquire Fossil’s intellectual property, belonging to the smartwatch section.
Fossil is a Texas-based company which is known for their watches both in the analog as well as in the smartwatch category. Apparently, the smartwatch tech from Fossil runs on Google OS and gives competition to Apple’s smartwatches. Fossil will retain more than 200 members from their research and development team; and will focus further on their innovation and product development.
Greg Mckelvey, executive vice president and the Chief strategy and digital officer of the Fossil group, stated that-
“We’ve built an advanced a technology that has the potential to improve upon our existing platforms of smartwatches. Together with Google, our innovation partner, we’ll continue to unlock growth in wearables”.
Fossil tuned their attention towards the smartwatch category since 2015 with around $260 million as an acquisition from Misfit. It is a tech platform that was developed by former Microsoft researcher Sonny Vu and John Scully; who was once the Chief Executive of Apple. Till date, Fossil group has launched their smartwatches across 14 of their self owned and other licensed brands.
Stacey Burr, the vice president of Google’s Wear OS division mentioned that-
“Wearables, built for wellness, simplicity, personalization, and helpfulness, have the opportunity to improve lives by bringing users the information they and insights they need quickly, at a glance.”
Stacy burr further added to her statement by mentioning that; “The addition of Fossil Group’s technology and team to Google demonstrates our commitment to the wearable industry by enabling a diverse portfolio of smartwatches supporting the ever-evolving needs of the vitality seeking, on-the-go consumer.”
Google’s increasing the competition by buying Smartwatch Tech From Fossil?
This collaborating move is taken by Google to unlock the potential to manufacture their self-branded smartwatches which are supposed to give fierce competition to the already established giants in the smartwatch category like Apple and Fitbit.
According to the reports from the Research Firm IDC; the global sale in the smartwatch category will soon increase by 11 percent by 2022. As a result of the growing popularity of the smartwatches among the audience.
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