Nokia Completes Withings Rebrand With Two New Connected Health Products

[MacRumors]

Withings on Tuesday completed its rebrand to the Nokia label, following news of the buyout last spring, and as part of the transition two new connected health products have been released under the Nokia name.

The Nokia Body ($60) is a new connected Wi-Fi scale featuring readouts for weight and BMI, with a Body+ ($100) offering additional metrics like body fat and water percentage plus bone and mass. Elsewhere the Nokia BPM+ ($130) is a small blood pressure cuff with Bluetooth connectivity. Both products appear to be slight variations on Withings devices, but with lower price tags.

The Withings Body Cardio scale is still available under the new Nokia branding, as are the Withings Steel watch and Withings Go fitness trackers, now called the Nokia Steel and Nokia Go. Older products like the Aura sleep monitor alarm clock and the Thermo thermometer will also remain available.

Other Withings products like the Steel HR will return later in the year under the Nokia rebrand, with some of the portfolio discontinued. Nokia health products can be purchased at health.nokia.com.

Nokia has also refreshed the Withings Health Mate app, which communicates with the devices to offer users detailed analytics on their weight, activity, sleep, and blood pressure. New app sections include eight-week wellness programs such as Sleep Smarter, Pregnancy Tracker, and Healthier Heart.

Nokia announced the rebrand earlier this year at the Mobile World Congress, after the company acquired the French health tracking firm in 2015 for an estimated $192 million.

Article Link: Nokia Completes Withings Rebrand With Two New Connected Health Products

 

[Reason077]

This rebrand seems like a strange move. Withings has built a good reputation in the fitness-tracking space.

On the other hand, Nokia is a dated, tainted brand that I don't think people associate with fitness.

 

[syntax]

The Nokia Body ($60) is a new connected Wi-Fi scale featuring readouts for weight, BMI, body fat and water percentage plus bone and mass,

Nope. The new $60 scale only measures weight (and by extension, BMI). The two more expensive re-badged Withings scales measure the rest.

 

[Purple Pear]

So Nokia branded products will be available in Apple stores?

lol

 

[groovyf]

I thought Apple stores dropped Withings not long after the Nokia buyout occurred?

 

[timmyh]

Nope. The new $60 scale only measures weight (and by extension, BMI). The two more expensive re-badged Withings scales measure the rest.

True, thanks. It's confusing because they list the Body+ specs on both product pages. Watch out for that.

 

[Purple Pear]

I thought Apple stores dropped Withings not long after the Nokia buyout occurred?

They dropped Withings while the Apple/Nokia legal issues were going on but this 9to5Mac article suggests that once they were settled the products were going to return to Apple stores:-
https://9to5mac.com/2017/05/23/appl...a-withings-products-returning-to-apple-store/

 

[honglong1976]

Withing built a decent reputation for health products and now they are all Nokia branded.

This isn't going to end well!

 

[paulryp]

These watches look really nice, A great alternative to Fitbit. I would definitely consider the Steel HR. I think we will see Nokia gradually claw itself back into relevance over the next few years, especially if they can position themselves in Augmented Health.

 

[OllyW]

They dropped Withings while the Apple/Nokia legal issues were going on but this 9to5Mac article suggests that once they were settled the products were going to return to Apple stores:-
https://9to5mac.com/2017/05/23/appl...a-withings-products-returning-to-apple-store/

It was also reported here in the Apple and Nokia Settle Patent Dispute With New Licensing Agreement article.

 

[Billberryjuice]

There also appears to be an even higher tier Body called Body Cardio with heart metric functions.

https://health.nokia.com/gb/en/body-cardio

Edit: ah didn't spot it's mentioned in the article.

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

Looks like the Pop (my preferred model) has been dropped :/

 

[Stella]

Body Cardio is a great device.

There also appears to be an even higher tier Body called Body Cardio with heart metric functions.

https://health.nokia.com/gb/en/body-cardio

Edit: ah didn't spot it's mentioned in the article.

 

[John.B]

This rebrand seems like a strange move. Withings has built a good reputation in the fitness-tracking space.

On the other hand, Nokia is a dated, tainted brand that I don't think people associate with fitness.

This change is nothing short of a dumpster fire. They should've leveraged the valuable Withings brand, not the tainted Nokia name.

The apps and website have also been dumbed down, to the point of being useless.

 

[jwdsail]

Have been searching for a replacement for my Withings scale, because I saw this comming. Nokia ruining what I actually liked. The dumbed down apps/site have rendered my only trip into the "internet of things" world pretty much useless. What a ducking fumpster fire.

 

[ipedro]

While I loved their devices and own several, I never liked the Withings brand itself. I almost bought into the FitBit ecosystem instead because of their better branding and community but my design intuition drew me to Withings despite not really liking the name. That definitely paid off in the long run with better health products and now with Nokia's partnership with Apple.

Nokia is refocusing itself as a mainstream health devices company so the purchase of the best health devices company makes perfect sense and gives them a large head start on that goal.

With Nokia's resources, marketing know how, and now direct partnership with Apple, I think they're going to be very big in this space.

I own an Aura that I love but that has been neglected on the software side, leaving so much potential on the table. I'm encouraged by Nokia picking up the slack. My scale and blood pressure cuff are already important contributors to my HealthKit data collection.

 

[UL2RA]

Why would anyone want to have Nokia tied to their branding? Is this the 90s?

 

[ipedro]

Engadget says that the Aura is being discontinued. MacRumors says that it's still available. There's no Aura on Nokia's new health site. I think Engadget got it right and MacRumors got it wrong. Might want to update your story @arn.

What a shame though. The Aura was my favourite Withings product. I hope that it continues to get support but I imagine that now it'll never reach its full potential. It never did get all the features that it was announced with and has always felt kind of in beta.

I guess I'll look for the exits on this one. Apple appears to be moving towards sleep tracking with the acquisition of Beddit so maybe I'll move to that platform instead.

 

[Billberryjuice]

Body Cardio is a great device.

You recommend then? The Wirecutter also claims that the Body range is the best in the smart scale category, so I'm kinda tempted. Might wait and see if there are many teething problems from the brand transfer, however.
[doublepost=1498035070][/doublepost]

The Aura was my favourite Withings product.

Why not email Nokia and vouch for its survival? Obviously the voice of one customer rarely holds a huge amount of sway but it isn't totally unheard of.

 

[tifa_mo]

Nokia did a great transition. I also had the worries of Nokia screwing up the whole design and ecosystem, but they didn't. The new Health Mate app looks so much more modern, while the old one had trouble syncing with my watches and looked like iOS 5. This is gonna be a great comeback for Nokia into consumer business (don't mind the phone. they dont even make them).

 

[ipedro]

You recommend then? The Wirecutter also claims that the Body range is the best in the smart scale category, so I'm kinda tempted. Might wait and see if there are many teething problems from the brand transfer, however.
[doublepost=1498035070][/doublepost]
Why not email Nokia and vouch for its survival? Obviously the voice of one customer rarely holds a huge amount of sway but it isn't totally unheard of.

I get the feeling that some of these products were put on the bench. Assimilating an entire product line from an acquired company into the existing plan and strategy of the parent company is very complex. That explains why they released 2 new products under the Nokia brand while simply rebranding the others that still made sense in that plan.

Sleep data is a complex field and Withings hadn't yet mastered it. Sleep is such a critical component to good health that I'm sure they'll get to it once the more mainstream health tracking pieces are mastered and rolled out.

 

[Torrijos]

This change is nothing short of a dumpster fire. They should've leveraged the valuable Withings brand, not the tainted Nokia name.

The apps and website have also been dumbed down, to the point of being useless.

On the nose!

The GUI for the apps is crap now!
I used to be able to have a direct view on my stats from the main screen now is touch-a-palousa to reach the right information...
Some people were swimming in Fjords instead of going to Design 101.

 

[WaiverWireAddict]

Nokia botched this rebranding horribly.

Brands are based on trust, and Nokia has destroyed mine.

I have an Aura, a Body Cardio, and a Thermo, which I bought in that order, as a result of being positively impressed with each successive product.

The HealthMate update has turned my Aura into a paperweight.

I can understand discontinuing a product line.

The Auro has practically no control surface itself. You can turn some basic on/off and +\- with the touch sensor, but you can't set the alarm time, or setup a sleep program. The Aura relies on the HealthMate app to provide an interface to those more complex settings, like most WiFi/Bluetooth devices.

The new HealthMate sees the Aura, under the device icon, and has menu options to do such things. The problem?

They are all disabled. Tap all you want-nothing happens.

My trust is destroyed because a product I paid over $200 for, which I rely on, has stopped working after a software update.

They could have rebranded by releasing the new HealthMate as "Nokia HealthMate" as a separate app on the App Store, and I would still be able to control my Aura with the old Withings app.

Instead they deliberately (or possibly incompetently same trust destruction effect really) released an update that turned a useful device into a$200 paperweight.

Suitably unimpressed.

 

[jefftb]

Have been searching for a replacement for my Withings scale, because I saw this comming. Nokia ruining what I actually liked. The dumbed down apps/site have rendered my only trip into the "internet of things" world pretty much useless. What a ducking fumpster fire.

So what did you find as a replacement? I've been looking to buy a scale but Amazon reviews definitely scared me away.