Apple introduced its follow-up to the original Apple Watch today with the Watch Series 2, which is waterproof, includes a GPS radio, faster processors, and a brighter screen. The new watches are available in aluminum (gold, rose gold, silver or space black) or stainless steel (stainless or space black). Pricing starts at $369. There's a new Watch Edition in white ceramic for … [Read more...]
JAMA Says Fitbit Makes The Most Accurate Fitness Tracker, But It’s Not The One You Think
The apparent inaccuracy of wearable fitness trackers has long bugged us, but we had been unable to put real scientific numbers to it. Fortunately, there are real researchers in the world, and they've established scientifically that most of the step-counting data you get from trackers is pretty bad. A letter in the Journal of the American Medical Association -- as mainstream … [Read more...]
Nike and Apple Working Are Working on a New Wearable. Clothing, Perhaps?
When Nike stopped developing its Fuelband wristware earlier this year, the company insisted that it wasn't abandoning wearables -- and there was plenty of speculation that Nike was merely ceding hardware development to Apple. Now Nike CEO Mark Parker has told Bloomberg TV that the companies are, indeed, hatching something. Parker's not saying what that something is, other … [Read more...]
Apple Touts Wearables With New TV Ad
Apple doesn't have its own wearable device (yet), and the iOS version with HealthKit software won't launch until the Fall. But it's started doing the groundwork to get the market ready. We were watching the first game of Stanley Cup finals last night -- go Rangers! -- and this ad showed up between the first and second … [Read more...]
Apple Announces Healthkit iPhone App
It's not the iWatch (although the keynote at Apple's developers' conference is still going on), but Apple just announced Healthkit, an iPhone app that consolidates health information from your fitness tracker(s) -- Nike Fuelband very much included -- and can share it with your doctor. The Mayo Clinic is signing on, as is a long list of other health institutions. More, we're … [Read more...]
Who’s Making How Much Money in the Wearable Band Market
We've been thinking a lot about the recent Canalys report about market share in the wearables business, and we've been trying to tease some actual revenue numbers based in the results they published. This is valuable because these companies are either private and don't publish revenues, or are public and don't break this market down in their financials. Canalys said that … [Read more...]
Fitbit Leads the Wearables World: Canalys
Anyone can project billions of dollars in the future, but counting actual shipping products is hard. The consulting firm Canalys reports that Fitbit shipped nearly half of all wearable bands in the world in the first quarter of 2014. Overall, Canalys reported, 2.7 million wearable bands shipped worldwide last quarter, and Fitbit's strength was despite the skin rash-related … [Read more...]
Runkeeper CEO Says Fitness Trackers Are Dead; We’re Not So Sure
Business Insider is carrying a very thoughtful and provocative article by Runkeeper CEO Jason Jacobs. Jacobs says that standalone fitness trackers like the Nike FuelBand, the Fitbit Force, or the Misfit Shine, are fads -- and that the future belongs to smartphones and software. The argument -- that consumers consistently bias toward simplicity and not complexity -- is … [Read more...]
How the FuelBand Was Built (Updated)
In light of the recent layoff of Nike FuelBand hardware engineers, a friend pointed us to this recent post from Whipsaw, who did the FuelBand's industrial mechanical design. It's a good refresher course in how hard it is to design good hardware -- especially when the specifications and timeframe are as demanding as the FuelBand's were. Here in 2014, it's a little hard to … [Read more...]
Ringblingz’s Mullen on Why Nike Folded on Fuelband
Jenniey Mullen, the co-CEO of Ringblingz, has a smart post on LinkedIn about why Nike's getting out of the wearables hardware business. The nub of it: Nike's a great marketing company. But with the Fuelband, it doesn't have the product to back it up and other companies do. Nike would have to reinvent an entire division to play here, and Nike belongs in the wearable tech … [Read more...]