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

cnet.com

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

#81

Post by dragonwriter »

e28eta wrote: post #65
dragonwriter wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm surprised by this. To me, it makes a lot of sense that Nike, as a fitness company, produces a wearable device for exercising. I'm not surprised -- they've been pouring money into marketing, and yet not coming within a mile of the leader (FitBit) in the activity tracker market. > It must be a failure of my imagination, but I don't see a smart watch (in the next couple years) being both attractive to the general…

Does that jive with their stated plan to do software only? Does the FitBit hardware have an open API that Nike could integrate with? Or are they stepping back and waiting for Google, Samsung, Apple, etc, to make a successful hardware device? Whether that's things like the M7 in smartphones or an extra device.

> Does the FitBit hardware have an open API that Nike could integrate with?

Yes: http://dev.fitbit.com/

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

#82

Post by dhughes »

Bahamut wrote: post #30
dragonwriter wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Once Android Wear and Apple wearables start rolling out, it's going to be a slaughter out there. For Nike, its already a slaughter -- FitBit has the lion's share of the market for activity trackers, Nike was in third well behind Jawbone UP. [1] [1] http://mobihealthnews.com/28825/fitbit-jawbone-nike-had-97-p...

Those are some interesting stats, since amongst runner circles (at least here in DC), Garmins are the most popular by far. Could they be classifying these devices differently?

Possibly this http://fellrnr.com/wiki/GPS_Accuracy

It seems Garmin is more accurate.

I saw it on reddit http://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/236lqy/gps_...

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

#83

Post by dragonwriter »

djhworld wrote: post #40
e28eta wrote: post #24

I'm surprised by this. To me, it makes a lot of sense that Nike, as a fitness company, produces a wearable device for exercising. It must be a failure of my imagination, but I don't see a smart watch (in the next couple years) being both attractive to the general consumer and solving the same problems as the FuelBand does. That's partly because I can't imagine what features would make me want to buy an iWatch. So I e…

I suspect it's because competing products such as the FitBit come with the advantage of their companion apps being available on iOS and android, whereas the FuelBand is iOS only

That's probably a factor, but Nike's braindead marketing for FuelBand is probably a factor. If you look at who buys activity trackers, IME, its largely people who have trouble maintaining commitment to exercise that need something to help them, and FuelBand's advertising is a lot about how it isn't for you and will make you feel worse if you aren't already fully committed.

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

#84

Post by walshemj »

smoyer wrote: post #74
ben1040 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worth mentioning too that Nike has several job openings in PDX for Android engineers to work on Nike+, so clearly they're looking to shed their Apple exclusivity thus far.

Or perhaps their website hasn't kept up with the restructuring? On another note, why are these reports saying the engineers were "fired"? It's one thing to be let go when a project was discontinued but nobody wants the stigma of being fired on their record.

Unfortunetly a lot of people slopply use fired as an exact synonym for redundancy or layoffs Its not!

One would have hoped that a suposedly jounalistic endevour would use correct language for fear of beiing sued for "professional slander"

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

#85

Post by walshemj »

rhizome wrote: post #34
jbuzbee wrote: 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.

Laid off is sligly diferent from being made redundant.

Being laid off means that your job still exists but there is no work for it to do at present; they expect that work will pick up shortly and you will thus be taken back to do it.

Redundant means the job is gone and not coming back.

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

#86

Post by SkyMarshal »

callmeed wrote: post #66
napoleoncomplex wrote: post #10

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.

How certain is everyone that Apple will launch a wearable? I just don't see it personally.

It's certain, they're working on it, and have hired some of the best people in the world for things like skin sensors (blood glucose, etc).
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