It appears speaker and fitness tracker company Jawbone is struggling and could be on the verge of going out of business, with news today suggesting production has ceased on all of its current products.
According to a report from Tech Insider, Jawbone has fully ended production on its line of fitness trackers and has sold the remaining inventory to a third-party reseller, and a report from Fortune says the company is also seeking a buyer for its speaker business.
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Jawbone has reportedly struggled to sell its fitness trackers in an increasingly competitive market, forcing it to offer all remaining UP2, UP3, and UP4 tracking accessories to a third-party reseller at a discounted price in order to keep the business afloat.
As for its speaker line, Jawbone is said to be courting potential buyers and liquidating its remaining speaker inventory. Jawbone has not commented on either decision, leaving it unclear whether the company will aim to produce additional fitness trackers in the future, but Fortune says Jawbone is selling its speaker business so it can focus on health and wearables.
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Jawbone has been floundering for several months as interest in its fitness trackers and speakers has dwindled. No new products have been released since the early months of 2015, and in November, Jawbone laid off 15 percent of its global workforce, closed offices in New York, and downscaled its operations in Sunnyvale and Pittsburgh.
The company did raise $165 million in funding in January, but its valuation dropped from $3 billion to $1.5 billion.
Update: The Verge says Jawbone is still developing a new "last chance" wearable product. It won’t be a fitness tracker, instead offering clinical-grade health tracking related to heart monitoring. Jawbone is said to be planning to announce the product this summer.
Update 2: Jawbone denies claims that it is going out of business, telling Engadget that it remains committed to creating new wearable products.
Speculation that Jawbone is exiting the wearables business or going out of business altogether is false. This speculation appears to emanate from wrongful insinuations made in a blog post in which the reporter has since posted a "Correction." Unfortunately, other media picked it up before the reporter posted a correction and spread this false information. Jawbone remains wholly committed to innovating in and building great wearables products. The company has never been more excited about its pipeline of technology and products and looks forward to sharing them when ready. We manage our inventory positions according to internal business processes, and strategic product lifecycle objectives. This situation is no different and we will continue to support all of our products in the marketplace.
Top Rated Comments
(View all)So "what" begins? Are we saying Apple put them out of business, after all of the noise on this forum about how Apple Watch doesn't compete with the devices that are reported to outsell it? Choose one: having the cake, or eating it.
Wrist real estate is a scarce resource. Cheap fitness bands compete for the same space on your wrist; looking forward, increasingly sophisticated smartwatches will put specialized devices out of business.It's Blackberry 2009 time for FitBit.
I’m not surprised really; both their speaker and fitness products were some of the earliest to market, but lacked the attention to detail that gives a product that lasts, and regular software fixes.
That's because you probably have a Fitbit and you like it. I respect that. But at some point people will get tired (or realize that it's useless) to "track" their activity. Right now it's "cool" to do that. It gives you a sense that you are accomplishing something.I’ll not mourn them.
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Fitbit isn’t going anywhere. They are synonymous with fitness trackers. Apple Watch will die first.
I've seen Jawbone speakers (and their clones) go for far less on bargain websites such as Tanga, so this doesn't surprise me in the slightest.
So it begins.
So "what" begins? Are we saying Apple put them out of business, after all of the noise on this forum about how Apple Watch doesn't compete with the devices that are reported to outsell it? Choose one: having the cake, or eating it.