Is Nike Leaving Wearable Technology Market?

    Shortly after the announcement of its new Nike + Fuel Lab project earlier this month, Nike fired most of its employees working on the development of FuelBand sports bracelets. Apparently, the company is sharply changing its strategy and intends to curtail the production of wearable devices. Most likely, Nike intends to focus on the development and development of sports software.




    This was announced by Brian Strong, a representative of Nike, who commented on the situation: “Being a dynamically developing, large company, we must constantly coordinate our resources with business priorities. Since our priority is the development of digital technologies for sports, we have made some changes to the team of our employees. Therefore, some employees were laid off in the company. We do not comment on the issues of individual employment of individual employees. ”

    Of the 70 people in the Nike FuelBand hardware team, some 55 were reportedly fired. However, it is not known how many people from these employees the company hired in other Nike divisions, and how many employees completely left the company. The release of the new FuelBand bracelet model is also delayed. According to the preliminary announcement, the new model was to be released this fall with a more elegant design. However, Nike insists that all these changes, in any case, will not affect the Nike + FuelBand SE bracelet, which is currently on sale.

    “Nike + FuelBand SE remains an important part of our business. We will continue to improve the Nike + FuelBand app, will release bracelets in the new METALUXE color solutions, and we will in every way promote and support the Nike + FuelBand SE bracelet for the foreseeable future, ”Strong added.

    A change in Nike’s strategy comes at a time when other brands are actively developing the production of wearable devices for tracking health and sports: HTC has announced its interest in producing wearable devices, Samsung has recently announced the release of the Gear Fit bracelet and other wearable devices, and Apple is preparing To release their "smart" watch iWatch, which, tentatively, will be released at the end of this year.

    It is worth noting that Apple CEO Tim Cook is a member of the Nike board of directors. It is possible that the two companies plan to work closely - some experts link the latest developments at Nike with the upcoming release of Apple's iWatch smartwatch.

    According to analyst Jim Duffy, Nike will focus on developing and improving its software. Since the Nike + app is fully optimized for iOS, it’s possible that Apple’s new iWatch smartwatch will support Nike software. Most likely, the Nike + application will become a more developed and independent software platform.

    “Nike’s partnership with leading technology companies has a rich history,” says Nike spokesman Brian Strong, “We started developing software for Apple in 2006, when we launched our first Nike + Running iOS app. Since then, Nike has developed a number of iOS apps, including Nike + Training Club, Nike + FuelBand, and Nike + Move. ”

    The news that Nike has disbanded its FuelBand sports bracelet development team and changed its strategy has sparked lively discussions among Russian wearable electronics experts. Why did Nike decide to change their strategy? Will Nike work more closely with Apple? Medgadgets follows social media discussions:













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