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#News(Startup) [ via IoTForIndiaGroup ]
According to the companies, the $40 million deal will see Google acquire a smartwatch intellectual property and the portion of Fossil’s R&D team that currently supports it. However, Fossil will retain an R&D team with over 200 people and keep creating smartwatches, which it notes have become the company’s fastest growing product category in recent years.
the release suggests that the technology may have something to do with a diversity of consumer needs and style preferences. Both McKelvey and Google Wear OS VP Stacey Burr refer to Fossil’s track record of releasing multiple watches for different users, which the company has already accomplished across 14 brands. Watch bands or other physical watch customizations could be natural options given Fossil’s prior product releases.
Fossil says that the mysterious intellectual property is an evolution of something acquired from Misfit, yet is “new to the market technology” and “a product that has features and benefits that aren’t in the category today.” McKelvey said that the technology would benefit from being deployed by Google to other partners in the ecosystem, and will be featured first in Fossil products, then in non-Fossil ones.
Misfit was perhaps best known for its Shine series of fitness and sleep trackers, which were capable of detaching their electronic components from their wristbands, enabling the basic metallic discs to be worn instead inside shirt clips called Clasps.
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