Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Read the details. Yes, Apple Watch has some form of heart-rate monitoring. But what's described on that page is continuous all-day monitoring. Fitbit has better technology to better serve the consumer. Yes, you can tell Apple Watch what kind of workout you're about to do and it will record it. But what's described on that page is automatically detecting and recording a type of workout based on motion. Fitbit has bett…
Jawbone is being liquidated as its CEO launches a related health startup
171–180 of 200 posts
Re: Jawbone is being liquidated as its CEO launches a related health startup
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The days of consumer hardware company's access to startup capital is over. So I haven't worked at a hardware start-up but it seemed pretty difficult even before these companies to raise funding versus a pure software play. I'm not necessarily convinced this makes it easier or harder. Is there a specific reason you think it will be harder now? Also, for what it's worth, Fitbit and GoPro are still going. I'm convince…
I worked at a VC funded hardware start up for the first eight years of my career. You'll never read about it here though; we made digital pathology scanners. When I left we had sold the company for ~300M and were bringing in about ~30M / year in revenue. I guess my point is that there is more going on in the VC space then you'll read about on HN.
Re: Jawbone is being liquidated as its CEO launches a related health startup
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Wasn't the iPod successful because you could get music online legally and easily for it? Memory is hazy, but I seem to recall that without the iTunes store/application you had to either mess around ripping CDs, or use illegal downloads. The one hardware innovation the iPod had was to use the teeny hard drives just coming on to the market at the time, when everyone else was using flash. Flash was the right solution ul…
Re: Jawbone is being liquidated as its CEO launches a related health startup
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
Read the details. Yes, Apple Watch has some form of heart-rate monitoring. But what's described on that page is continuous all-day monitoring. Fitbit has better technology to better serve the consumer. Yes, you can tell Apple Watch what kind of workout you're about to do and it will record it. But what's described on that page is automatically detecting and recording a type of workout based on motion. Fitbit has bett…
What about Apple watch heart-rate monitoring is not continuous and all-day?
That page doesn't say specifically, but my recollection is that it's otherwise every 10 minutes if you're still. In non-workout mode they don't measure heart rate if you're moving; presumably not accurate enough.
All-day heart-rate monitoring can only be claimed by devices with a battery life of at least a day.
Re: Jawbone is being liquidated as its CEO launches a related health startup
#175Earlier 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…
> Smartwatches and fitness trackers were too obvious a category and Samsung, Apple, etc. were sure to swoop in and win. They swooped in but wouldn't say that they won. At least in the UK I seem to see more people with a Fitbit than with an Apple Watch.
Re: Jawbone is being liquidated as its CEO launches a related health startup
#176Earlier 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…
Re: Jawbone is being liquidated as its CEO launches a related health startup
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
The iPod wasn't that popular before Apple launched iTunes for Windows, though. So I imagine competitors were considerably less interested in it as a target. Also, one of the iPod's major interface innovations was the click wheel - IIRC they've patented the hell out of that, so no one was about to launch a competitor.
Re: Jawbone is being liquidated as its CEO launches a related health startup
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why buy a gopro when a $100 china commodity clone will do good enough? The sensors & lenses are going to be the same size, from sony and rubber gaskets with a hard plastic shell is not hard to do.
Why would you buy an iphone if any cheap $100 android phone will do good enough?
Re: Jawbone is being liquidated as its CEO launches a related health startup
#180Earlier 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?
I now use carry and use them everyday and listen to much more music/spoken content than I ever did before. Many times I use them over my QC35s.