Google Finally Made the Fitness Tracker Apple and Whoop Wouldn’t

It’s an opening in the wearable market that Apple, despite its continued dominance in smartwatches, has shown surprisingly little interest in pursuing. At the same time, Whoop has remained laser-focused on securing the respect of a more intense and demanding subsegment.

The Fitbit Air may not threaten Whoop’s hold on serious athletes just yet, especially given the latter’s deeper recovery ecosystem and coaching tools. Nor is it likely to convince masses of entrenched Apple Watch users to suddenly abandon their ecosystem.

But the device also doesn’t need to do either to become important.

In the 17 years since Fitbit kicked off the wearable race, the industry has largely split into two directions, and the Fitbit Air feels like one of the first major reboots in years to seriously target the enormous middle ground sitting between those extremes.

The new Fitbit Air suggests Google has…