Jawbone hasn’t been doing very well in the consumer wearables category in the recent past and the recent reports almost confirm the same. According to the report, the company was stopping the production of all its fitness trackers. The latest one from Techcrunch mentions that Jawbone is completely stopping the production of consumer wearable devices and are shifting to making them for clinicians and health care providers.
Jawbone is reportedly raising funds for the transition, and TC says it already collected as much as $951 million from big-name investors like JP Morgan. Unfortunately, it already spent almost all of that money “with very little to show in returns.”
“There are a lot of things to learn about the interactions between health wellness and consumer electronics,” one source close to the company said. He added that consumer hardware is just too challenging, except for the very biggest companies.
Jawbone was not only into the wearable business because there was a Jambox speaker business too, which slowly faded away after that was quietly sold last year. The last major upgrade to the fitness band was in 2015 when the company had launched the UP4.
There was once a time when Fitbit offered to buyout Jawbone but the latter didn’t take it ahead. Now, with the shift from consumer to B2B segment, Jawbone might have seen enough light at the end of the tunnel. The U.S. market is health conscious and thus, several companies have been dealing with fitness tracker makers to offer to their employees under health schemes and awareness.
Good for Jawbone! Missed the opportunity to be sold to Fitbit, would have been great for the company!!