Google has quietly pulled its Fitbit brand and products out of several markets, including Asia Pacific, several European countries and Latin America. According to Android Authority, the total number of regions it has exited from totals at 29, which is more than half of its previous presence across the globe.
According to the official support page, Fitbit had stopped selling its products and services in Asian countries including Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines from 11 August 2023, European markets including Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Slovakia from 24 October, while no specific date was mentioned for Mexico and the broader Latin America countries. On the other hand, the brand will continue to operate in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Finland, Greece, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore.
Google adds that customers based in locations where the brand had exited are unable to automatically renew their Fitbit Premium memberships purchased from fitbit.com. Those with an active subscription will continue to have access to the service until the end of their current billing period, plus an extra 30 days at no additional charge. Users may resubscribe to Premium via the Fitbit mobile app if they so wish.
For the Malaysian market, the good news is that you can still purchase Fitbit’s trackers and smartwatches from local distributors, as well as via the brand’s official online stores on Shopee and Lazada. However, it is very likely that newer products will be brought in as imports, while the latter’s inventory might not see any new additions or restocks in the near future.
As expected, Google did not explain why it had pulled out Fitbit from all 29 markets. While it is natural to assume that the move is intended to make way for the company’s own Pixel Watch, this is not the case for countries such as our own. Reason being that Google has not officially brought in its smart devices to our market, so the only alternatives available to Malaysian consumers are from competing brands.
(Source: Google [1] [2], via Android Authority)
