Microsoft halts sales of Band fitness trackers, says no new model in 2016
Microsoft has pulled its Band fitness trackers from its online store, and confirmed that it won't have a new model out in 2016, suggesting that the company is rethinking its approach to a wearables market largely dominated by Fitbit and Apple.
"We have sold through our existing Band 2 inventory and have no plans to release another Band device this year," a spokesperson told ZDNet, adding that the company still intends to support Band 2 owners and the Microsoft Health platform for Windows, iOS, and Android. It has also removed the Band SDK from its developer downloads though, effectively ending any third-party app support.
Sources for ZDNet claimed that Microsoft isn't going to ship a Band 3 in the near future, and is in fact planning to phase out its trackers entirely.
The Band has never made a significant dent in the fitness market, despite having Microsoft's weight behind it and a major redesign in Oct. 2015.
The company likely isn't abandoning wearables entirely, given the growing importance of the market. At the very least it's still working on the HoloLens, an augmented reality wearable. Apple is known to be working on AR technology as well, though it doesn't have any announced products and might not for years.
"We have sold through our existing Band 2 inventory and have no plans to release another Band device this year," a spokesperson told ZDNet, adding that the company still intends to support Band 2 owners and the Microsoft Health platform for Windows, iOS, and Android. It has also removed the Band SDK from its developer downloads though, effectively ending any third-party app support.
Sources for ZDNet claimed that Microsoft isn't going to ship a Band 3 in the near future, and is in fact planning to phase out its trackers entirely.
The Band has never made a significant dent in the fitness market, despite having Microsoft's weight behind it and a major redesign in Oct. 2015.
The company likely isn't abandoning wearables entirely, given the growing importance of the market. At the very least it's still working on the HoloLens, an augmented reality wearable. Apple is known to be working on AR technology as well, though it doesn't have any announced products and might not for years.
Comments
Tens of... dozens of people sad.
But seriously, reviews show that the band was pretty good. But it lacks the apps and is too niche.
Next.
What, another product which MS has not figure out how to make money. Anyone keeping count how many products MS failed to make money on. From a Hardware stand point, Keyboard and Mice I believe they made money on, Still not sure if they make money on Gaming systems, I think they turned the corner after about 10 yrs of give products away but they had to buy a bunch of games software companies to help hide the losses.
MS is just lucky Apple did not decide to go into the gaming consoled business that would be another one they would be closing the doors on.
I tell people this all the time, Hardware engineers can write code, but code writers can not build hardware. Something in the hardware guys DNA that allows them to do both. Apple understand this thus the reason they hire the best hardware people out there. MS DNA is software and they understand this as well as Google, but if you want to make great hardware why go work for a software company.
The Surface is also a good product which IS in a device category that people tend to associate with the Microsoft brand, which is why it will continue to be a successful product for them.
Microsoft isn't giving up on Surface. They see an opening to go after Mac customers. That's why I hope we see a really nice update sometime this month. Michael Gartenberg, who writes for iMore and used to work at Apple, thinks Macs are going the way of iPods. I hope he's wrong. Don't cede the professional market to Microsoft.
Zune, windows mobile, Surface, all leading Microsoft into irrelevancy. Since Microsoft doesn't have a successful mobile platform copying Apple Watch will fail also. At least the band was different but it seems Microsoft is lost without copying Apple.
Microsoft is pushing hard with AI and Cloud. I was just listening to the Techpinions podcast about this and they made a valid point about how these things are more enterprise-centric, but not consumer-centric.
With Blackberry finally pulling the plug on hardware, MS EOLing the Band, hardware is becoming a very tough game for people to stay in. People don't realise how Apple excels here. They'll either claim "Peak iPhone" or call people "iSheep" for blindly buying into Apple's philosophy. They'll even throw around the term "Reality Distortion Field" without even knowing what it means and in what context it was used for Steve Jobs.