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Jawbone is being liquidated as its CEO launches a related health startup

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Re: Jawbone is being liquidated as its CEO launches a related health startup

#151

Post by dx034 »

drewg123 wrote: post #77
tokyoSurfer wrote: post #36

The problem with fitness trackers and smartwatches is that each and every brand keeps adding unnecessary features to the stack. They won't listen to users and keep building devices that have no market. Most of those companies created a product that was good and needed a good amount of work to make it better. But it seems that developers and management felt that simple = bad, and worked their asses off to add useless…

Its funny, but I have the opposite reaction. I want a fitness band / smartwatch that can do everything: o Ability to run w/o phone: - BT transmitter & music storage - GPS independant of phone o Accurate HRM - background hear rate monitoring o Smartwatch features - notifications - Android smart unlock device - useful for 2FA (eg, Google Authenticator, or Duo) o 2+ days of battery life o sleep tracking I think only 4 o…

Why do you need to run without a phone? Phones aren't that heavy and devices can be significantly cheaper and smaller if they don't need a GPS chip and music storage (smaller battery).

I stopped using my Garmin watch since I have a fitbit charge and find that measurements via phone are surprisingly accurate. In cities, pure GPS watches often lose signal (buildings, tunnels), phones can track much more accurately there.

Re: Jawbone is being liquidated as its CEO launches a related health startup

#152

Post by dankohn1 »

dx034 wrote: post #150
dankohn1 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same friend kept buying the Jawbone and telling me how great they were! I've now converted him to AirPods as well.

But why airpods and not one of the countless other bluetooth headphones? There are so many alternatives with equal or better sound for a cheaper price. Or is the design the appealing factor for many people?

For me the quality and consistency of the pairing has been the key advantage.

Re: Jawbone is being liquidated as its CEO launches a related health startup

#153

Post by zimpenfish »

dx034 wrote: post #151
drewg123 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its funny, but I have the opposite reaction. I want a fitness band / smartwatch that can do everything: o Ability to run w/o phone: - BT transmitter & music storage - GPS independant of phone o Accurate HRM - background hear rate monitoring o Smartwatch features - notifications - Android smart unlock device - useful for 2FA (eg, Google Authenticator, or Duo) o 2+ days of battery life o sleep tracking I think only 4 o…

Why do you need to run without a phone? Phones aren't that heavy and devices can be significantly cheaper and smaller if they don't need a GPS chip and music storage (smaller battery). I stopped using my Garmin watch since I have a fitbit charge and find that measurements via phone are surprisingly accurate. In cities, pure GPS watches often lose signal (buildings, tunnels), phones can track much more accurately ther…

I use my Garmin because I track heartrate when running and the Charge HR - whilst surprisingly accurate for step counting and distance and resting HR - is woeful when trying to track HR during exercise.

(Also for cycling with a variety of ANT+ sensors.)

Re: Jawbone is being liquidated as its CEO launches a related health startup

#154

Post by bigato »

I just received yesterday a Jawbone UP4 wrist band. I switched it on and it upgraded its own firwmare via cellphone without asking. Now it just doesn't work at all unless it is connected to a usb port or charger. I read through all their support suggestions and tried what was possible to no avail. The "soft reset" and "secondary reset" suggested just doesn't happen; the band leds won't respond as described.

Jawbone support is non-existent at this point, and their support web forms won't even work. So I am returning this to Amazon for a refund. Yeah, I should have done some proper research before buying this.

Unluckily, this seems to be the only wrist band which have the perfect combination of functionality and form factor that I wanted. I just wanted this to work. And it even works as a NFC payment thing! Only amex though. I'm leaning towards a Fitbit Alta HR now, but I would really prefer it to be discrete and without a display at all.

Re: Jawbone is being liquidated as its CEO launches a related health startup

#155

Post by crispyambulance »

pcsanwald wrote: post #38
Hydraulix989 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's so easy for Shenzhen to just copy them though. There's nothing defensible about hardware.

honest question: why then did no one copy the iPod, and no one has copied the iPhone with any success? as soon as the iPod came out way back in the day, the criticism was that it would soon be copied. No one ever did, and I worked in the music business at the time and was familiar with everything on the market. nothing ever came close, apple made a ton of money. it's a common thing to say that it's not defensible/can…

Well in a way the iPhone was "copied" in that it obviously influenced the design of competitive smart phones.

Apple, however, hasn't rested on their laurels. They have kept innovating. If they had slowed down at all, the others would have eaten their lunch.

The ipod was really a story about iTunes, I think, rather than the hardware.

Re: Jawbone is being liquidated as its CEO launches a related health startup

#156

Post by yock »

bigato wrote: post #154

I just received yesterday a Jawbone UP4 wrist band. I switched it on and it upgraded its own firwmare via cellphone without asking. Now it just doesn't work at all unless it is connected to a usb port or charger. I read through all their support suggestions and tried what was possible to no avail. The "soft reset" and "secondary reset" suggested just doesn't happen; the band leds won't respond as described. Jawbone s…

> Yeah, I should have done some proper research before buying this.

I could understand this reaction if you were unsatisfied with a frustrating-but-functional experience. Don't beat yourself up too hard for buying something without thoroughly researching whether or not it actually works.

Re: Jawbone is being liquidated as its CEO launches a related health startup

#157

Post by dilemma »

pcsanwald wrote: post #46
x0x0 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the magic in the iphone and ipod come primarily from software (and for the ipod, the music licensing relationships that apple alone had in the beginning.) Android hardware can be pretty good; the app ecosystem, the ecosystem in general, the clear love that Apple has for the iphone, and the control that is (generally) used in user-beneficial ways all make the iphone superior to android.

in the case of the iPod I'm not sure that was true. remember, these were the days of everyone having a bunch of mp3s on their hard drive. The actual iPod software was extremely rudimentary, and basically barely integrated with iTunes. this was still in the days of windows, keep in mind, and before apple actually launched iTunes for windows. and still, it was immediately a dominant player and not one company was able…

White earphones.

Re: Jawbone is being liquidated as its CEO launches a related health startup

#159

Post by brlewis »

bambax wrote: post #140
replicatorblog wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd ascribe the failure to the commodification of the fitness tracker and increasingly platform-driven smart speaker space. Here are some companies that have raised big rounds recently: + SimpliSafe raised $57M from Sequoia + Ring raised $100M+ from DFJ + Formlabs raised $50M from Foundry + Sphero raised $23M in April + Anki raised $52.5M in PE I'm not sure what the future holds for Anki/Sphero, but the first three e…

The blog post is from Aug. 2015 and asks: > What makes today’s hardware successes like GoPro, Arista, Fitbit, Nest, Dropcam, Zayo, and Oculus different? GoPro, Fitbit, Nest, Dropcam (part of Nest) are struggling. Hardware is hard.

Yes, hardware is hard. Consumer discretionary hardware is especially hard. Expect ups and downs. Just because a company is struggling now doesn't mean its success is over. (I know that's not exactly what you were saying; just thought your comment could use that clarifying follow up.)

Re: Jawbone is being liquidated as its CEO launches a related health startup

#160

Post by Naritai »

brlewis wrote: post #65
shas3 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the problem with hardware startups is more subtle. Unless you open up a fundamentally new market segment or find a niche application, your product is asking to be commodified. Smartwatches and fitness trackers were too obvious a category and Samsung, Apple, etc. were sure to swoop in and win. There really is no distinguishing feature for Jawbone or Fitbit. Other hardware startups like Anki are doing stuff tha…

See https://www.fitbit.com/technology for a partial and outdated list of novel Fitbit technology.

There are 3 items on that list, and all 3 have been present in all of Fitbit's competitors for years. Even if Fitbit was first mover on these technologies, they've long since lost any unique ownership of any of these 3.
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