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Nike Fires Majority of FuelBand Team, Plans to Stop Making Wearables

elgrecomac said:
Bravo to the reporter who used the word "fired'. I'm tired of people softening it up with words like laid off or right sized or smart sized.
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It really has nothing to do with softening it up, firing is if i did something to get kicked out like i came in drunk, layoff is just when the company can't afford to keep you or your job in general isn't need anymore. One has to do with the person another with the business.
 
A wrist wearable device is one thing that one one needs two of. Especially if it is fitness related. It's reasonable to own two computers but not two of these.

I bet nike is "in" on Apple's new iWatch and already is developing software. Some one HAS to be if there is going to be any third party apps on launch day. So I bet Nike knows what's commit and knows they can't compete except in software apps for the iWatch.
 
McCool71 said:
I totally agree. The rise of the numerous Fuelband competitors would not have happened at the same scale if they supported Android as well. Fuelband would likely have been even bigger on iOS today if there were fewer competitors that support both Android and iOS.
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I have never owned a Fuel Band but have always thought it a really cool and fresh device, but the fact it's software only works on iOS put me off even when I had my iPhones. Because you can use a Fuel Band for a few years, yet you will change your phone a few times in those years.
I actually find the competition not as classy? Although the LG band is pretty nice.

Spiritgreywolf said:
It's the typical cycle of clueless upper management. Take an idea that is decent, hire a team, then mismanage the whole thing and layoff the group behind its development. You rearely see upper douchebag management fall on the sword for mishandling something...
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Couldn't agree anymore with you mate. I like how they come up with the most stupid pointless ideas ever, just to warrant their jobs.
 
Spiritgreywolf said:
It's the typical cycle of clueless upper management. Take an idea that is decent, hire a team, then mismanage the whole thing and layoff the group behind its development. You rearely see upper douchebag management fall on the sword for mishandling something...
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What was mishandled in this case? Weren't Fuelbands performing great? As far as I was aware they were the wearable fitness device.
 
Smells like an involvement with Apple of some description. Do you guys really think we'll see an introduction of the iWatch at WWDC? Seems like maybe something they'd want to hold off for the iPhone event.

Although, having said that, WWDC is a developer's conference and Apple would be keen to give developers the iWatch SDK and begin encouraging the creation of apps and services ready for a release later in the year. I guess then Apple could also teach developers about apps for the iWatch and what they're looking for at WWDC.
 
Mad Mac Maniac said:
This makes a lot of sense. I'd been wondering about this for the past 6 months. I mean Tim is on Nike's board... Apple sells Nike's Fuelband... How could Apple create a competitor... Let apple do what they do best, and Nike what they do best
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Are you suggesting nike does software best??? The nike band is probably one of the best things Nike have done in recent years.

If they stop doing the band, and apple introduces an iwatch, this is not what I want . The nike band is great, I can wear my current watch and the band at the same time. And the current battery on the band is just fine, something an I watch would not match.
 
Xiroteus said:
They have good products, they just need to step up on a couple parts.
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I agree 100%

Sad that I can't get the computer, nor iPad I want from apple. The parts are there and available, but apple refuses to offer it. Not enough ram, no dGPU in that size, etc...
 
From what I've read much of the team were not all that talented. And management is your typical corporate BS where they couldn't care less about making an amazing product... they only care about their seniority and pleasing their superiors.

Anyway, what I'm wonder is if it's just the Fuel Band or if it's ALL hardware. Nike makes an awesome GPS running watch which I LOVE. I hope Nike's answer going forward isn't to buy an iWatch and pair it with an iPhone for GPS mapping. I don't want to run with an iPhone strapped to my shoulder (especially a 5.5" iPhone) just so I can get mapping data.

I guess we'll see. There's always Garmin and Polar but they both make horrible hardware and software. Polar watches are hideous and Garmin watches and software have really horrible user interfaces.
 
Okay I did a tiny amount of research into this. Fuelbands seemed to be selling well and helping Nike's bottom line. Unless I'm mistaken (quite possible) they were only selling 1-2 Million per year however.

Still, apparently they were helping Nike's financial outlook, so really it doesn't make obvious sense why Nike would shut the hardware unit down.
 
Hardware is cool, not sturdy

I'm on my fourth first generation Fuelband, I've worn it for over a year and enjoyed it but they're not particularly durable. Hopefully there will be a very fuel band-esque Apple product that takes all the same features of the Fuelband and adds heart rate monitoring and some other features to make it more worthwhile. Just hope they don't ask $300 for it.
 
Obviously nike wouldn't want to be apple competitor (can't compete anyway), and betting on something it could not win. So, nike just join apple as software partner.
 
I really wish journalists (and bloggers) would do a better job differentiating between being "laid off" and "fired". If Nike is simply giving up on wearable the team was laid off -- they lost their jobs because the positions ceased to exist. Saying they were "fired" implies they themselves screwed in in some way and were relieved of their jobs for doing them badly.

If the Nike Fuelband didn't "win" in the marketplace chances are it's not the team's fault (unless we're talking about the marketing team), and the people working on the project don't deserve to be personally held accountable for the public's fickleness.

They were laid off, not fired. A small but very meaningful differentiation for anyone who has been in a similar situation.
 
I wonder if Tim cook had a hand in this, being on Nike's board and all that. In the end, it's smart for nike because that means they wouldn't be competing with the watch at launch and may even be a launch partner.
 
what an epic fail for Nike and a real disappointment for those who bought the Fuelband which now is totally useless :eek: :mad:
 
Solomani said:
Nike = will do the wearable sports/fitness/activity software

Apple = takes care of the hardware

It's very analogous to the old Wintel duopoly. Microsoft handled the software part, and Intel handled the hardware. It's a proven strategy.
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What about this take on the right strategy:

- Apple sells a highend product and takes care of the software and functionality, while opening the plataform for devs and creating fantastic APIs and dev tools.

It worked awesomely on the Mac (more profit from PCs than the top5 players combined), iPad, iPod, iPhone and it will be great on the aTV.
 
Azzin said:
I wonder if this is relevant:

http://9to5mac.com/2014/04/19/apple...-fda-approval-product-development-experience/
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I get the feeling Apple is working on something much bigger/different than people expect. You don't need these kind of employees if you're just working on a FuelBand or GearFit type device. When Ive calls it a game of chess, it makes me wonder if that means Apple thinks everyone else is playing checkers.

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/Magazine/article1385622.ece
“Obviously, there are rumours about us working on... and, obviously, I’m not going to talk about that. It’s a game of chess, isn’t it?”
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“At Apple, there’s almost a joy in looking at your ignorance and realising, ‘Wow, we’re going to learn about this and, by the time we’re done, we’re going to really understand and do something great.’ "
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pedromcm.pm said:
What about this take on the right strategy:

- Apple sells a highend product and takes care of the software and functionality, while opening the plataform for devs and creating fantastic APIs and dev tools.
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That's not a strategy, it's a tactic.

A strategy would be to enter the wearables market, focussing on the growing segments of personal health and diagnostics. The logic is that mobile computing, tablet computing and personal computing are maturing markets where profits are decreasing as a consequence of increased competition. The wearables market is growing, but needs a focussed and customer oriented solution that goes beyond mere step-counting or blood pressure monitoring. It needs to disrupt that market with a combination of functionalities and associated services that bring a true benefit to the user.

A useful tactic that could help in achieving part of that goal could indeed be what is written by you. Another one that doesn't necessarily exclude the other is to partner with Nike to leverage its existing community (Nike+ members) that is oriented towards the personal health portion of the target market. Another tactic would be to invest in technology (making or buying) that enables the user to extract a true benefit out of the device.
 
Takeo said:
Anyway, what I'm wonder is if it's just the Fuel Band or if it's ALL hardware. Nike makes an awesome GPS running watch which I LOVE.
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It's all hardware. But Nike says they will continues sales and support of hardware, just not develop new models.

512ke said:
Okay I did a tiny amount of research into this. Fuelbands seemed to be selling well and helping Nike's bottom line. Unless I'm mistaken (quite possible) they were only selling 1-2 Million per year however.

Still, apparently they were helping Nike's financial outlook, so really it doesn't make obvious sense why Nike would shut the hardware unit down.
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It doesn't make "obvious" sense because Nike may have information not yet disclosed to the public about a certain competing product announcement coming down the pike... say at WWDC. After then it might make sense. Time will tell.

At any rate the FB is not discontinued. It's only future development that us halted.
 
duffmanth said:
How about stop charging $150 for them, maybe drop them to $100?!
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I think Nike is just realizing that when Apple releases their wearables that the Nike product simply won't sell, so instead of keeping a money losing product line on the market, they might be realizing that they need to figure out an exit strategy.

I don't know how well they are selling at the price they are charging. The problem is that just by lowering the MSRP might not be profitable enough. That's the biggest problem with price drops. Doing to drastic of a price drop will only cheapen the brand and those tactics are usually only successful in clearing out inventory.

I think it's just a product that's becoming less interesting since Apple is working on their product line, which might be the product of choice.

I personally don't think I'm going to buy a wearable, but I have to figure out if it does something that I see as a "need" rather than a "want". I think a lot of people get a little too caught up in fad or trendy products. They get attention, sales increase and then after the novelty wears off, so do sales. I think the wearable market is something that falls into the category of a trendy product. People like to wear a variety of styles of watches, and watch styles go in/out of style VERY quickly. I don't know if you were around when those cheap calculator watches were the rage, but no one wears those watches anymore, yet when they first came out, they were VERY popular. Now, I hardly see them worn.
 
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