The Fitbit Air Costs 50% More in India. Most of That Is Not Google

Google launched the Fitbit Air in India on 2 October at ₹13,999, around $146, against $99 in the United States. It is a 12-gram screenless band that tracks heart rate, blood oxygen, atrial fibrillation and sleep, with three months of Google Health Premium included.

The easy version of this story is that Google charges Indians more. The accurate version is less satisfying and more useful.

These are not made in India, and shipping a 12-gram band does not cost $47. What does cost that is the way India taxes imported electronics: customs duty on the device, then a consumption tax on top of the landed price. By the time the band reaches a shelf in Delhi, a large part of the gap has been added by a government, not by a company. Any brand importing the same product pays it.

Which leaves the question actually worth asking. Several manufacturers assemble inside India precisely to avoid that cost, and pass some of it on. Google did not. So an Indian buyer is paying for a decision about where a factory sits, taken in another country, by people who will never see that price tag.

On the band itself, the missing screen does not bother me. It measures and sends the numbers to a phone I am carrying anyway. A screen on your wrist is a second place to read what you can already read, and it costs battery to keep it there.

So, do I buy it? If you want tracking without another screen in your life, this is the right shape of product. In India, check what a locally assembled band costs first: you may be comparing a good device against the same device without an import bill attached.