The top fitness tracker company has now purchased a one year old wearable tech brand.
Fitbit purchased Vector, smartwatch company out of Romania that is only a year old. The brand is managed from London, England and is a year old.
The Vector brand is best known for smartwatches that have their own proprietary operating system.
That said, beyond running on its own OS, the smartwatch company is also recognized for producing a device that has a 30 day battery life. In the smartwatch market, that amount of battery life is practically unheard of. Fitbit has also clearly been impressed with what the company has to offer as it will now be including it among its many acquisitions.
According to a statement from Vector, Fitbit will be using the smartwatch company to make new products and features.
Vector’s press statement said that “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.” It added that “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.”
Existing Vector smartwatches will all continue to function as they always have, regardless of the sale of the company. Customer support will continue to be provided. That said, device owners should no longer expect that additional features will be added to their wearable technology. Furthermore, warranty-related queries and hardware-related issues will continue to be addressed by the company.
This is the second smartwatch company Fitbit has acquired in the same number of months. Fitbit acquired Pebble in December 2016 when that firm announced that it was shutting down. That purchase was made for $40 million, though the Vector acquisition amount was not disclosed by the time this article was written.
In December, it seemed clear that Fitbit acquired Pebble for its software experience as opposed to its core employees or hardware business. However, in Vector’s case, the smartwatch software has been acquired but the employees have also been hired.
