Sure looks like Microsoft is breaking up the Band. The excellent Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet is reporting that all references to the Band 2 at Microsoft’s online store have disappeared, as has the SDK.
That can’t be good, and Foley reached a Microsoft spokesman who says the company has sold its inventory of Band 2s and has no intention of releasing another Band this year. They will, however, continue supporting its Health platform. Whether anyone will care about the Microsoft Health platform without a Microsoft fitness band is a question worth asking.
Microsoft’s move is the latest in a very challenging summer and fall for the consumer wearables market. Jawbone appears to be out of the business, there are no new Android Wear devices (or software) coming for the rest of the year, super-cheap Chinese trackers are taking over the low end of the business, and Samsung appears to be distracted with its Note7 recall at the expense of the Gear 2 tracker.
Microsoft is surely either going to build these features into a smart watch or they are completely clueless as to where the market is headed? They don’t have a great track record on mobile, time to consider just who is going the ship?