Apple Among Tech Companies Interested in Acquiring Health Tracker Maker Basis

[macUser2007]

...

Apple is NOT shopping for smart-watch companies, particularly ones with clumsy implementations....

What do you base your assumption of "clumsy implementations" on?

I have a Basis. It is not perfect, but it is not "clumsy" either. It has the most advanced array of sensors of the mainstream health trackers, AFAIK, so it likely to be a competitor to the iWatch, at least in that field.

Frankly, at the speed with which Apple is moving, by the time we see the iWatch, many will have acquired a device like Basis, or there will be presumably improved Android devices flooding the market, so I wouldn't hold my breath for anything earth-shattering from Apple.

I hope Apple, or someone else, comes up with something amazing, but in the meantime, I am reasonably happy using my Basis.

 

[Sonoda]

ironically enough, basis have been pro-android at the expense of iOS customers for quite awhile. someone at basis determined that it was easier/smarter to develop multiple versions for the different models in the android ecosystem vs writing once for iOS.

since basis got some more funding they are less arrogant than they were about iOS and apple customers.

Nobody at Basis ever cared about Android. It takes a lot of time for Apple to get around to approving a new product to use their special Bluetooth chips and nobody knew whether or not they were going to get said approval until about a week and a half before production was slated to begin at some roofless sweatshop in China. Basis had to choose between developing an app that they might never be able to ship and Android, so Android won. Why they felt the need to lie about any of this, I'll never understand. Why anyone is still complaining now that they've seen the quality of the apps Basis is capable of producing, I will also never understand. You should be grateful that they left you and your phone's battery out of the picture.

This notion that Apple is aggressively pursuing them is quite imaginative, but it's an altogether more realistic supposition that they're simply out of money and begging anyone in earshot for a bailout. What do they have to offer prospective suiters? A half-finished lump of four year old technology that doesn't actually do the one thing it was originally designed to? A small and angry user base which generates no revenue after their initial purchase? An inexperienced management team who couldn't stay focused long enough to get the thing off the ground with over 30 million dollars? An expensive lawsuit with Bodymedia that has yet to be settled? Please. If anybody actually wants to pick up any of the remaining engineers, they can do so for far less than the cost of a buyout now that they all know those stock options they've been slaving away for are about to be rendered worthless.

The one interesting thing they have is a small mountain of biometric data, but that ain't gonna keep the lights on.

 

[macUser2007]

Nobody at Basis ever cared about Android. ...
The one interesting thing they have is a small mountain of biometric data, but that ain't gonna keep the lights on.

Dude! You just signed up to wipe the floor with Basis?!!! Got to have some axe to grind, or some gain in sight.... But it sounds like you do have some past or current interest/dealings with Basis.

Nevertheless, I am not an angry Basis customer, by any means. Overall, they have delivered what I expected.

 

[Klae17]

Let me translate your comment in 2007 terms:

A few good reasons to Apple should buy Blackberry:

1. Get the product into the market faster!
2. Use existing and proven technologies.
3. Get experienced talent.
4. Gain instant experience
5. Block others with obtained IP.​

Is this how you would have Apple build the iPhone?

What if they did and with Blackberry it became something that was even bigger and better? You don't know. But Apple didn't do it because of secrecy. They didn't need any of the techs that BBM had, they were developing their own. In this case, the tech is already built and made, would be easier.

 

[sohelpme]

What if they did and with Blackberry it became something that was even bigger and better? You don't know. But Apple didn't do it because of secrecy. They didn't need any of the techs that BBM had, they were developing their own. In this case, the tech is already built and made, would be easier.

Hell, the iPhone would have been LOADS crappier if BB/Rim had any involvement with developing it.

After the iPhone was publicly shown, the engineers at Rim believed Apple was lying about the product [that SJ demoed live]. They believed it was physically impossible to have that large of a touchscreen, with that powerful of a CPU/GPU, with that much storage built-in, with a cell-phone radio, and a battery that made it work all day.

Given the handsets and tablets Rim has created since then, I am glad, nah, grateful that Rim was not involved with any part of the development of the iPhone.

 

[Klae17]

Hell, the iPhone would have been LOADS crappier if BB/Rim had any involvement with developing it.

After the iPhone was publicly shown, the engineers at Rim believed Apple was lying about the product [that SJ demoed live]. They believed it was physically impossible to have that large of a touchscreen, with that powerful of a CPU/GPU, with that much storage built-in, with a cell-phone radio, and a battery that made it work all day.

Given the handsets and tablets Rim has created since then, I am glad, nah, grateful that Rim was not involved with any part of the development of the iPhone.

You are assuming RIM would have operational command? Really? No. Apple would take assets and improve on them. Not saying that they should have, by don't insult Apple by saying RIM would have developed anything if Apple bought them out.

 

[Klae17]

That is an awful reason. You do not buy a company so that you can rush your product to the market, you buy a company for its technology (i.e. AuthenTech).



Proven technologies? Doesn't look like the market agrees with that, if Basis wants to sell out. And if these are existing technologies, Apple should have no problem building these technologies themselves. What does Basis have that is so inventive and innovative and patenable that Apple cannot replicate it themselves?



If the talent was so experienced, why isn't Basis flourishing with their wonderful technologies and their sensor-laden watch? Besides, Apple could easily lure any of those people away from Basis without buying the company outright.



Yes, experience in how to not build an ugly watch like Basis has done. Apple does not need to take advice from a company whose smartwatch was not successful on the market. Apple has much better grasp of what it takes to pull off a successful product, they have all the experience they need under their belt, what with the iPhone and iPad.



They didn't because Blackberry was a dinosaur. You don't buy a company because you want to help it become bigger and better. You buy it because it has the technology you need. Blackberry's technology and their vision for the smartphone was outdated.

Buying a company like Blackberry would introduce way too much baggage. What do you do with their old models? How do you appease all of Blackberry's old customers?



They don't need the tech that Basis has either. Anything that Basis has done, Apple can do better and in a more elegant way. Again, does Basis really own some patenable invention that cannot be replicated by Apple and/or other companies?

The tech that is built by Basis does not look good. It is not a watch that millions of people would want to wear. It looks clunky and looks even worse than the Gear. Basis has already proven that they cannot build an elegant, beautiful smartwatch, so the fancy sensors they have don't matter anyway.

Love the write up. Hope it didn't take more than 30 minutes since I didn't say buy Basis. Apple should buy for iWatch.

 

[Klae17]

"Apple should buy for iWatch" is a sentence that doesn't make any sense.

Buy [what] for iWatch?

A company. Talent. Patents. Super easy dude.

 

[sohelpme]

A company. Talent. Patents. Super easy dude.

So then, no reason to buy Basis, other than "it's a company".

 

[sohelpme]

You are assuming RIM would have operational command? Really? No. Apple would take assets and improve on them. Not saying that they should have, by don't insult Apple by saying RIM would have developed anything if Apple bought them out.

Then what would the RIM guys have done? They don't do good user-experience, they use sub-par hardware, they bought a good kernel, but Apple's got one and they have lots of experience with what they've got.

Really, their claim to fame is minimizing data traffic, which is less important now, and data security. RIM still has the edge in data security because their devices can't do as much as Apple's.