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Nike fires majority of FuelBand team, will stop making wearable hardware

cnet.com

41–50 of 86 posts

Re: Nike fires majority of FuelBand team, will stop making wearable hardware

#41
post #4

Total market / large number of players = unsustainable business.

in my opinion wearables like that should look more like "classic looking" connected watches ,rather than a SciFi looking wrist band. But there is a market, definetly. the connected stuff should be a feature not the main point of the product.

The point of a phone is to actually phone, all the apps/internet stuffs are features of that phone.

At least that how i see how one can market these products.

Re: Nike fires majority of FuelBand team, will stop making wearable hardware

#42

It's surprising to see it so early, but they probably see the writing on the wall. Once Android Wear and Apple wearables start rolling out, it's going to be a slaughter out there. Apple and Nike teaming up for the iWatch launch is probably a safe bet now too.

I can see iWatches as a big market for a startup, or add-on for Nike - but not for Apple. The profits can't move their meter.

The problem is input: Apple solved it for phones (touch screen). They tried voice-recog for shuffle iPod, but dropped it in the next iteration. If they really are making a mass-market iWatch, I think they must have solved this problem in some other way. (Glass solves it, so maybe it won't be a watch...)

Re: Nike fires majority of FuelBand team, will stop making wearable hardware

#43
post #34
post #27

Is it just me, or does anyone else think the term "fired" is improper in cases like this? I think the more appropriate term for when a company is changing direction, leaving a market, etc. is "laid-off". To me, "fired" denotes wrongdoing on the part of the employee. Of course, when you're trying to get page-views, Fired is likely to get more readers at the expense of the terminated employees.

It's at the expense of credibility, but it's CNet. These terms have actual meanings, "laid off" when the position is being eliminated, "fired" when it's not.

Having a US head-office I'm frequently bemused / confused as to why companies in that country so readily lay-off the staff of canceled projects, instead of redeploying them internally to fill other vacancies.

Particularly in large corps there's nearly always some other division crying-out for staff with hands-on knowledge of their industry and product, instead of spending $50,000 to hire someone out of college and then train them.

Re: Nike fires majority of FuelBand team, will stop making wearable hardware

#44
This is my biggest nightmare. Consumer choice being limited due to corporate politics and killing innovation for bottom line because of old school corporate thinking.

Imagine working on a product, getting bought out, and seeing your hard work being dumped in the garbage because that was already their plan. Sure, you might have millions, but did you really make a change in the world? I think it would be an empty experience.

Re: Nike fires majority of FuelBand team, will stop making wearable hardware

#45
Update: Nike confirmed a small number of layoffs but denies FuelBand shutdown, according to re/code:

  “The Nike+ FuelBand SE remains an important part of our
  business,” the company said in a statement emailed to
  Re/code. “We will continue to improve the Nike+ FuelBand App,
  launch new METALUXE colors, and we will sell and support the
  Nike+ FuelBand SE for the foreseeable future.”
http://recode.net/2014/04/18/nike-denies-fuelband-shutdown-b...

Re: Nike fires majority of FuelBand team, will stop making wearable hardware

#46
Hmm, so nobody has brought up the possibility of some sort of Apple + Nike collusion (for lack of a better word) here?

Cook sits on the Nike board. Who's to say he didn't let the folks at Nike in on what Apple were working on and the two companies decided to make some sort of deal seeing as the two products would have areas of overlap.

I can see a scenario where Nike features prominently as a partner for Apple's wearable products.

Re: Nike fires majority of FuelBand team, will stop making wearable hardware

#47
post #42

It's surprising to see it so early, but they probably see the writing on the wall. Once Android Wear and Apple wearables start rolling out, it's going to be a slaughter out there. Apple and Nike teaming up for the iWatch launch is probably a safe bet now too.

I can see iWatches as a big market for a startup, or add-on for Nike - but not for Apple. The profits can't move their meter. The problem is input: Apple solved it for phones (touch screen). They tried voice-recog for shuffle iPod, but dropped it in the next iteration. If they really are making a mass-market iWatch, I think they must have solved this problem in some other way. (Glass solves it, so maybe it won't be a…

I find it interesting that voice-reco is a primary input mechanism for both the Amazon Fire TV and Amazon's scanner gadget for their Fresh grocery delivery service. The Fire TV is not on battery power, so it's not surprising there. But the scanner wand gadget presumably doesn't have much of a CPU in it, nor does it rely on a nearby smartphone.

Re: Nike fires majority of FuelBand team, will stop making wearable hardware

#48
post #46

Hmm, so nobody has brought up the possibility of some sort of Apple + Nike collusion (for lack of a better word) here? Cook sits on the Nike board. Who's to say he didn't let the folks at Nike in on what Apple were working on and the two companies decided to make some sort of deal seeing as the two products would have areas of overlap. I can see a scenario where Nike features prominently as a partner for Apple's wear…

It's possible that there won't be an Apple iWatch as such, but instead a platform like Google Wear for others to develop on. But such a thing is hard to keep secret once you've told a dozen partners about it.

Re: Nike fires majority of FuelBand team, will stop making wearable hardware

#49
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's at the expense of credibility, but it's CNet. These terms have actual meanings, "laid off" when the position is being eliminated, "fired" when it's not.

Having a US head-office I'm frequently bemused / confused as to why companies in that country so readily lay-off the staff of canceled projects, instead of redeploying them internally to fill other vacancies. Particularly in large corps there's nearly always some other division crying-out for staff with hands-on knowledge of their industry and product, instead of spending $50,000 to hire someone out of college and th…

Because American companies don't do any training.

Re: Nike fires majority of FuelBand team, will stop making wearable hardware

#50
Not sure I'm totally convinced of this software only argument.

I think of Nike as a brand that stands for high performance equipment.

Shoes, T-shirts, Golf Clubs, etc.

The software they have built around Nike+ has always felt second rate compared to software focused companies like Runkeeper.

I enjoyed my Nike Fuel band and was always hoping to see more innovation on this front from them.

I suppose they had to pick one or the other. This move allows them to have a fitbit software integration which will be big.

I would have stuck with high performance health monitoring hardware and integrated with every software vendor.

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