We saw a lot of wearables products promising a holiday delivery. Here’s a big one that missed: Jawbone won’t ship its $180 Up3 fitness band until after Christmas. Ouch.
Bloomberg has a lot of background about Jawbone and its position among venture capitalists (but doesn’t mention that Fitbit far outsells it). When the UP3 was announced in November, the company said it would ship “late in 2014.” But hardware is hard, and they didn’t make it. Now, they’re promising “early 2015.” Wareable reports that Jawbone says they’re knocking $40 off the price for disappointed pre-orderers, or will give them a low-end tracker for $50 now.
And that’s if you ordered right away. If you were order one now, Jawbone’s quoting a 8 to 9 week delivery interval. That’s “not-so-early 2015.”
It’s not necessarily fatal. We’re told by execs in the business that the high season for fitness trackers lasts through February, wrapping mostly around Valentine’s Day. We believe that, for the same reason that health clubs are packed with new members in January.
But still: missing Christmas with a top-of-the-line product is gonna sting the bottom line.