• Home
  • Trends
  • Company News
  • Product News
  • Fashion
  • Podcast
  • Events
  • About
  • Contact
  • March 2, 2021

Wearable Tech Insider

The Inside Word on Wearables and Wearable Technology

You are here: Home / Company News / Fitbit Buys Coin’s Wearable Payments Tech

Fitbit Buys Coin’s Wearable Payments Tech

May 18, 2016 By Dan Rosenbaum

Fitbit-Blaze_LineupFitbit’s been trying for more than a year to get NFC payment technology into its products; we picked up a strong rumor a few months ago (which we were unable to adequately confirm) that Fitbit had built production quantities of a fitness tracker with payment tech but was unable to get it to work properly. Today comes news that Fitbit has bought the wearable payment tech portfolio of Coin, along with the implication that Coin has reached the end of its troubled road.

Coin is best known for a card that’s used to store and mimic credit and debit cards; rather than having to carry around a half-dozen or so cards, the idea is to use one device that could look like any of those cards to a payment terminal or ARM. The initial crowd-funded product was delayed by about a year, and even then did not work as reliably as promised. A second version didn’t fare much better, although the company says 250,000 were sold.

Coin had, however, made a deal with Mastercard to build payment systems into wearables from Atlas, Moov, and Omate. It is that deal and technology that Fitbit has bought. The card business remains with Coin, whose website reports that it has sold out of cards, with no indication of what a follow-on product might be. The company’s statement implies but doesn’t not quite say that there won’t be a follow-on.

No purchase price was announced.

Fitbit’s statement said that the company had “no plans” to put NFC in its products this year, which makes sense seeing that the company’s road map for 2016 is probably firmly set. 2017, however, is not all that far away….

 

Last updated by Dan Rosenbaum on February 1, 2017.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Google
  • Email

Related

Filed Under: Company News, General News, Product News, Trends Tagged With: coin, fitbit, mastercard, payments

← Fairy Tale Tech at the Met Pebble Updates Watches with Heart Rate Monitors →

Subscribe To Our Weekly Newsletter

Subscribe now to the Wearable Tech Insider's weekly news blast. You'll get links to the top half-dozen stories in the world of wearable tech, optimized for quick reading. It's the best way to read the Wearable Tech Insider; it's free and you can change your mind any time. And, of course, we'll never sell your name or e-mail address...

Search This Site

Recent Posts

New Use Case for Apple Watch: Red Sox Stealing Signs

Fossil Debuts Two Android Wear Smartwatches

Garmin Shows Three New Fitness Bands at IFA

Fitbit Ionic: Minimal Acceptable Product?

Intel (Finally) Ditches Wearables for AR

Don’t Believe Everything You Read: Wearables Are Far From Dead

Eyes F.lashing Before Your Life

Smarty Pants: Nadi X Yoga Leggings

Rings: How Smart Can They Be?

Upskill Closes Series B Financing, But Won’t Say How Much

Stories from Health Tech Insider

  • Seniors Are Safer With Help from New Remote Monitor System
  • Are Those Real Muscles or Bristols Under Your Shirt?[video]
  • Are We Ready for Mass-Produced COVID-19 Biosensor Stickers?
  • System Helps Kids Hear Better at a Distance and with Background Noise
  • Smart Patch Collects Heart Data for Walking Health Check
  • Chronic Pain Patients Get Home Treatment with Telehealth

Topics

2013 android android wear apple apple watch apx labs basis battery CES ces2016 CES2017 epson finance fitbit fitness fossil fuelband garmin gear glass google healthkit intel iWatch jawbone LG market research microsoft misfit MWC15 nfc nike omate omsignal pebble recon samsung smartwatch sony sports tizen vuzix withings wristware wristwear

Sign up for Wearable Tech Insider

First name
Last name
* = required field

powered by MailChimp!

Subscribe now to the Wearable Tech Insider's weekly news blast. You'll get links to the top half-dozen stories in the world of wearable tech, optimized for quick reading. It's the best way to read the Wearable Tech Insider; it's free and you can change your mind any time. And, of course, we'll never sell your name or e-mail address...

Made in New York
Wearable Tech Insider is proud to be Made in NY.

All text © 2015 Center Ring Media

Privacy Policy

Center Ring Media Sites

Wearable Tech Insider
Seniortech Insider
Health Tech Insider

Copyright 2016 Center Ring Media | Site by JRMC

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.