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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

#191

Post by SpikeDad »

sailfast wrote: post #168
bambax wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Can somebody provide more context about Nest's struggles? I understand that their new products may not be selling that well (lots of cash for a CO detector / camera / etc) but what about the thermostat business where they have partnerships with most every energy provider and their setup process / support is great? What articles did I miss? I ask because of self-interest: I just installed a couple and I appreciate the…

Three problems. First selling to Google automatically put Nest into the "Are they going to sell my home data" category. Denials to the contrary that's Google's business model for everything so naturally people assume it's going to happen.

Second rush to market for their smoke detector Protect caused a debacle when it was discovered it was far too easy to silence a real alarm so they were all recalled, etc.

Third Nest has no relationship or respect in the home HVAC industry. Pretty much every HVAC tech and owner I've spoken to has a strong dislike for Nest. And while installing the Nest isn't that hard eventually everyone is going to have HVAC issues that need professional repair and people will get an earful about their Nest. This gets around quickly.

Of course now there's more competition also by traditional HVAC companies like Honeywell. Although I had a Nest in my previous house when I purchased a smart thermostat for my son for his house warming I purchased a Honeywell just for the reasons above.

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

#192

Post by nicky0 »

replicatorblog wrote: post #28
stingrae wrote: post #11

The days of consumer hardware company's access to startup capital is over. With so many high profile VC backed (Fitbit, GoPro, Hello, Juicero, Coin, Pearl, ect.) and kickstarted (Lily.ai, Pebble) failures, no one is willing to risk it.

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…

Why are you talking about GoPro and FitBit in the past tense?

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

#193

Post by nicky0 »

m-j-fox wrote: post #117
tajen wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that if Shenzen companies started publishing proposals on Kickstarter, they could make a success: Compared to SV products which get delivered in a year or two, they could churn prototypes in a few weeks, build confidence with investors and repeat. I hear people screaming "but they're not reliable/trustworthy!", but you can build trustworthiness by delivering bigger and bigger products, and, actually, Kickstarter…

We're still doing Kickstarter? Thought we all got burned on that AR/wifi deal and never went back.

The what?

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

#194

Post by dingo_bat »

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…

> Why do you need to run without a phone

Where do you keep your phone when you run? The only solution is strap it onto the arm, but I don't like that. It feels like a hindrance.

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

#195

Post by dingo_bat »

woofyman wrote: post #42
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…

I keep a small, cheap pedometer in my pocket. I have no use for any other features.

I bet your phone can do that too, no need for a separate device.

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

#196

Post by dwighttk »

Naritai wrote: post #185
brlewis wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Continuous monitoring is only claimed during a recorded workout https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204666 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.

Neither page offered any sort of metric on what constitutes 'accurate'. so how do you know FitBit doesn't just have a lower standard than Apple does?

right... I mean "continuous" on a digital device is still going to have some sample rate... Apple Watch has a 10 minute sample rate most of the time and some higher sample rate when they are doing "continuous" monitoring during a workout. Fitbit must have a great way to store that data if they really are doing "continuous" monitoring all day.

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

#197

Post by dan678 »

cbhl wrote: post #132
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…

I'd argue that the incumbents wouldn't have thought it possible to build a smartwatch or fitness tracker if it wasn't for these start-ups, though. They're just really good at acquiring and copying. When the iPhone first came out, the way you measured your heart rate was by putting your finger over the camera on the back of the phone.

iPhone 2G did not have any heart rate monitoring...

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

#199

Post by djrogers »

spiralpolitik wrote: post #120
djrogers wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the iPod Touch didn’t crush Archos, diamond, and Rio. It came about after the iPhone was in the market...

According to Wikipedia both Diamond and Archos players were DOA by 2005, two years before the iPhone was released. Creative struggled on for a few years post iPhone. 2005 was the year of the iPod Photo and the iPod Video, although the beginning of the iPod as multi-function device started in 2002 with addition of the PDA functionality. By 2006 Apple had 72-74% of the MP3 player market, with SanDisk, Creative, Zune, S…

Correct, all those MP3 players were killed by the mini and the nano, some by the big iPod. None of them competed with the iPod Touch which was a post-iPhone product.

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

#200

Post by sailfast »

SpikeDad wrote: post #191
sailfast wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can somebody provide more context about Nest's struggles? I understand that their new products may not be selling that well (lots of cash for a CO detector / camera / etc) but what about the thermostat business where they have partnerships with most every energy provider and their setup process / support is great? What articles did I miss? I ask because of self-interest: I just installed a couple and I appreciate the…

Three problems. First selling to Google automatically put Nest into the "Are they going to sell my home data" category. Denials to the contrary that's Google's business model for everything so naturally people assume it's going to happen. Second rush to market for their smoke detector Protect caused a debacle when it was discovered it was far too easy to silence a real alarm so they were all recalled, etc. Third Nest…

Thanks for this summary. My HVAC company does not install Nests and recommended a Honeywell on their end as a smart thermostat. I'd be interested to hear why the techs hate it so much as I've had a good experience so far and having one in the house wouldn't preclude you from doing anything with regard to replacing the actual systems involved. Thanks again for the thoughtful reply.
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