We've written before about Nymi, which makes a wristband that uses your unique heart pattern to authenticate your identity. For the first time, Nymi has been used to make a credit card payment. The payment was made on July 10 as part of a pilot project with TD Bank and MasterCard in Toronto, Ottawa, and Regina (that's in Saskatchewan -- north of North Dakota and Montana). In … [Read more...]
Omate Pivots to Jewelry With Ungaro
Omate was an early entrant into the smartwatch business, with a well-constructed analog device that included a microSIM and did not require a tethered phone. It still sells those watches, but has now entered the designer jewelry business with the French couture house Ungaro. The Ungaro x Omate is a notification ring that vibrates when you get a message from one person that … [Read more...]
Google Reorganizes into Alphabet [Updated]
There are some press releases that make you check to be sure that it's not April 1, but no: Google says it's re-organizing itself into a company called Alphabet. Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be CEO and president, respectively. Sundar Pichai, whose star has been rising rapidly at Google, becomes CEO of Google itself. The idea of Alphabet is to break out the moon-shot stuff … [Read more...]
Investors Say HTC Is Worth Only Its Cash Value
It may be the ultimate financial diss; the value of mobile manufacturer HTC has dipped below the value of its cash on hand. Inventory, brand, intellectual property? Worthless, the market says. Maybe even less. Bloomberg points out today that HTC's stock is trading so low earlier today that the company's market capitalization is less than its cash. Not long ago, HTC said it … [Read more...]
Blame Apple? U.S. Watch Sales Drop 11 Pct, Most in 7 Years
The market research company NPD says watch sales in the United States in June dropped 11 percent from the year before, to $375 million. Fred Levin, head of NPD's luxury practice, told Bloomberg that watches that cost between $50 and $1000 suffered across-the-board declines, with a 24 percent decline in the $100 to $199 range. Although Levin said that Apple "is going to gain … [Read more...]
Adidas Buys Runtastic, as Gear Companies Continue Software Rollups
Adidas has a nice business going in wearable sports tech with its miCoach line, and just expanded its reach by buying Runtastic for $239 million. Runtastic sells a line of smart bands, smart monitors and scales -- some of which overlap Adidas's existing products. The real value is probably Runtastic's 70 million registered users. The Adidas deal is the latest rollup of … [Read more...]
Fitbit Posts Strong Q2 Results, So the Stock Drops
Business journalists learn early: a company, its products, and its stock are three distinct things. It's also a truism that stocks rise on speculation and drop on news -- even good news. So it's not entirely surprising that Fitbit had a great quarter but its stock immediately lost 10 percent of its value. Analysts had expected profit of 8 cents per share on $319 million in … [Read more...]
Olio Smart Watch Closes $10M Round, Intros Gold-Plated Versions
Olio, makers of one of the more interesting high-end smartwatches, says it has just closed a $10 million Series A funding round led by New Enterprise Associates. In addition, the company has put on sale its latest round of limited-edition watches, led by versions plated in yellow or rose gold. As we've written previously, Olio has developed its own hardware and software … [Read more...]
Apple’s Earnings Are Up; Doesn’t Break Out Watch Sales [Updated]
Apple announced its second quarter earnings today, up 38 percent supported by big sales increases in China and strong iPhone demand. The company did not break out Apple Watch sales, lumping them instead with Apple TV, Beats products, and iPods. Sales for that group of products grew 49 percent in the second quarter, to $2.64 billion. CEO Tim Cook said watch sales were … [Read more...]
Is Garmin Signaling A Price War?
We noticed yesterday, while looking for something else entirely, that Garmin took a big hit in its stock price, dropping from about $46 to as low as $40 before recovering to $43. While we try to stay away from stock analysis (being much better at product than finance), the reason for the drop signals something interesting in the smart band market. It turns out that on … [Read more...]