Everyone wants a piece of the fit tech action these days, and Google, it seems, is not immune to Fit Tech Fever. According to a new report from Forbes, the company plans to introduce its own fitness data aggregation service called Google Fit at this month's Google I/O conference.
According to the report, Google Fit "would mark a direct challenge" to Apple's recently announced Health app and HealthKit developer framework, which will be included in this fall's iOS 8 release. As is the case with HealthKit, third-party apps would be able to share data with Google Fit, which would provide data from various fitness apps and devices in one place.
The report goes on to state that Google "will also announce partnerships with wearable device makers at its I/O conference." Forbes also notes that "it's unclear if Google Fit will be a service build into the next version of Android, or a standalone app that Android users will be able to download independently."
The wearables and fit tech markets are heating up in a big way, so it isn't unexpected to see companies like Apple and Google incorporating support for such devices.
According to a TechCrunch report from February, market research firm Canalsys estimates that companies will ship 17 million wearables in 2014, with that number growing to 45 million in 2017.
Meanwhile, a late-2013 survey from the Consumer Electronics Association shows that interest in purchasing fit tech wearables is growing quickly, quadrupling over the course of 2013 alone. With that in mind, we're sure to see more companies hop on the fit tech bandwagon over the next couple years.
