Jawbone says it has no plans to exit the fitness wearables business

By John Callaham
published

Jawbone has issued a statement claiming that recent reports stating it is exiting its fitness wearable business are "false".

Late on Friday, TechInsider claimed that Jawbone was stopping production of its UP fitness devices and selling off its remaining inventory to a third party. In a statement sent to Engadget, Jawbone said:

Speculation that Jawbone is exiting the wearables business or going out of business altogether is false. This speculation appears to emanate from wrongful insinuations made in a blog post in which the reporter has since posted a "Correction." Unfortunately, other media picked it up before the reporter posted a correction and spread this false information. Jawbone remains wholly committed to innovating in and building great wearables products. The company has never been more excited about its pipeline of technology and products and looks forward to sharing them when ready. We manage our inventory positions according to internal business processes, and strategic product lifecycle objectives. This situation is no different and we will continue to support all of our products in the marketplace.

For its part TechInsider says:

So, to be clear (since some people are interpreting this report incorrectly), Jawbone is not exiting the wearables business. You can still buy the UP fitness trackers. Jawbone just sold its remaining inventory to a third-party reseller. Our source reconfirmed that the current line of UP trackers aren't being built right now, although there's always the option to make more if the current inventory sells out.

John Callaham
John Callaham
7 Comments
  • For a moment I thought the title said Jawbone has no plans to release a Windows phone app.
  • Oh dear
  • Even though it didn't, you're probably right.
  • And... Boom! goes the dynamite!
  • I have no idea why the dumped their audio line. My Mini jambox is awesome!
  • Probably because there are better options that are cheaper.
  • So unfortunate for a company that had so much potential. I have owned the UP24 and the UP2. Both are extremely comfortable to wear and highly accurate versus Fitbit, which has huge accuracy problems. Jawbone also has the best app for those interested in their general fitness. However, mark my words, the company is lost with Hosain Rahman at the reins. Great ideas, but horrible implementation and huge Quality Assurance problems that he has failed to address. The last several years have been nothing but mistake after mistake after mistake. If was a public company, Rahman would have been chased out a long time ago. I wish it were different, because I love their fitness tracker, app, customer service, and ideas, but I do not see the company making it much longer. Unfortunate, but in the budding age of the “Internet of Things” there is little room for error, as the next start up is always waiting in the wings for their opportunity to step up and take over.