Jawbone has discontinued the UP series of smart bracelets. Are they no longer viable?

The former pioneer of wearables may no longer sell bracelets. According to foreign media Tech Insider, Jawbone has stopped manufacturing its UP series of bracelets and sold the inventory to third-party dealers in exchange for income to ensure the company's operation. It is not clear whether Jawbone will continue to manufacture UP bracelets. Jawbone officials have not responded to this news. But it needs to be clarified that Jawbone has not withdrawn from the wearable market, but has only cleared out its inventory.

Some media interpreted this as "smart bracelets are about to die", however, according to market research and forecasts, smart bracelets are a market that is still growing.

Wearable market status and forecast

According to data released by IDC, the global wearable market sales in the first quarter of 2016 reached 19.7 million, up 67% from the same period last year. In terms of smart wristbands, Fitbit shipped 4.8 million, up 1 million from the same period last year, accounting for 24.5% of the market share and continuing to maintain the first market share; Xiaomi shipped 3.7 million wristbands, accounting for 19% of the market; Apple shipped 1.5 million wristbands, accounting for 7.5% of the market.

Wearables are still a fast-growing market, and according to market research firm Gartner, they will continue to be so in the future. Gartner released a study at the beginning of this year predicting that the shipment volume of the wearable market is expected to reach 180 million by 2017 (including VR devices). Among them, smart watches will be the fastest growing product category, with sales expected to more than double, and although smart bracelets have been overshadowed, they are also expected to grow by about 50%.

Image from: BI

Although the wearables market has not reached the same level of growth as smartphones, it is still clearly a fast-growing emerging market. If the market is not declining, then there must be another reason why Jawbone wristband is failing. In fact, it is more of its own fault.

How did Jawbone commit suicide?

According to Tech Insider, Jawbone was famous for its Bluetooth headsets in the 1990s and early 2000s, and entered the wearable market in 2011. At that time, Jawbone's CEO Hosain Rahman was full of expectations for this market, hoping to impress consumers with a product that was fashionable, waterproof, connected to smartphones and had a long battery life.

The first generation of UP bracelets was designed with this goal in mind, but it hit a wall. When the first generation of UP bracelets was first launched in 2011, they were quickly removed from the shelves because they were prone to "bricking" after just a few days of use. In the end, the official had to stop selling them and compensate all consumers who had purchased them.

In 2012, Jawbone released a new version of the UP wristband. Its unique design was well received by the market, but the lack of wireless synchronization became a point of complaint for users. In 2013's UP24, the company added wireless synchronization function, but the waterproof function promised at the time was still not realized.

In the fall of 2014, the official finally announced that the new product UP3 would be waterproof. Even the market leader Fitbit has not implemented this function. The new product was expected to be launched before the end of the year shopping season, but shortly after the announcement, Jawbone announced that it would delay the release of the product. The problem was still the waterproof function.

Rahman blamed the problem on its Chinese manufacturers, saying they had not performed as well as they should have in water resistance testing. Some Jawbone employees tried to convince management that water resistance was impossible, suggesting that if the specifications were changed from "waterproof" to "splashproof" the device could be released in time for the 2014 holiday season. However, Rahman still insisted on including the water resistance feature, and the device missed the holiday season.

Jawbone's UP4, UP3, and UP2 were launched at the same time. UP2 is an upgraded version of UP24.

In April 2015, Jawbone finally released the UP3. Strangely, the new flagship UP4 was also released at the same time, and they only had the function of "splash-proof". Breathing monitoring and passive heart rate functions were not launched online, although the corresponding sensors were already inside, and Jawbone hoped to unlock these functions through software upgrades.

Why are there so many problems? According to Jawbone employees, the company's chaotic product testing environment is the cause of the problem. Many products are still undergoing various modifications when they are close to release, making it difficult to carry out market and retail plans. Some employees also think that it is too difficult to convey the idea of ​​new features to management. Bogard, Jawbone's product head, attributed the problems encountered in testing to the fact that the company was trying too new things.

Market lagging behind

While Jawbone was experiencing various problems, its biggest competitor, Fitbit, quickly seized the market. According to IDC data, Fitbit accounted for 34% of the wearable market share in 2015, while Jawbone only had 4.4%.

Jawbone employees were unhappy as they watched their competitors making rapid progress, but Rahman still insisted on his own way of making products. He believed that Jawbone could eventually regain the market with better products.

After the chaotic launch of UP3, Jawbone underwent a transformation. In May 2015, it quickly recruited Sameer Samat, a vice president of business at Google.

Sameer Samat joined to streamline the company's day-to-day operations. Under his leadership, Jawbone experienced a hiring freeze and layoffs in order to make the company structure clearer. The company also plans to re-release UP3 and UP4 in the 2015 holiday season, fully unlocking the functions through software upgrades.

Samat's arrival was welcomed by employees, who saw the former Google VP as a leader who could make tough decisions. Meanwhile, Jawbone's products have indeed improved, with automatic sleep monitoring and passive heart rate monitoring unlocked on the UP3 and UP4 through software upgrades. The company also released a redesigned version of the UP2.

But that was it, and other features like breathing monitoring weren’t unlocked. A relaunch for the 2015 holiday season never happened, and Samat returned to Google a few months later, reportedly with promises of a big payday and a new job as head of Google Play.

After missing the holiday season twice and experiencing various release delays and product problems, Jawbone's share of the wearable market has remained sluggish.

The Future of Jawbone

Jawbone's story is not over yet. The company announced at the beginning of the year that it had raised $165 million in funding and will continue to work in the wearable market.

According to The Verge, Jawbone has confirmed the sale of the company's audio equipment business. As for the UP bracelet, Jawbone has cleared out its inventory, but it is not sure whether it will abandon this business.

At the same time, wearable devices are questioned by many professionals and considered useless due to inaccurate data collected. According to Tech Insider, Rahman said that Jawbone can make wearable devices useful by building medical-grade sensors into the wristband, and believes that this is the company's product differentiation point. Rahman also said that Jawbone's R&D funding is three times that of Fitbit, which will lay the foundation for its future success.

However, some people are not optimistic. A person familiar with the situation said that the $165 million is Jawbone's lifeline, and it is unlikely that the company will create a miracle before burning through the money.

What is even more troubling for Jawbone is that the company is currently in court with Fitbit, accusing Fitbit of poaching employees and stealing intellectual property. However, judging from the current litigation situation, it is unlikely that Fitbit's products will be banned from the United States through legal means. Jawbone will continue to face competition from Fitbit.

On the other hand, Huami, the manufacturer of Xiaomi wristbands, is also eyeing the market. Huang Wang, the CEO of Huami, said, "In the sports wristband category, the result of a brutal reshuffle is that we and Fitbit have won. It won't be long before Fitbit will also be eliminated."

In any case, this year will be the most critical year for Jawbone. If new products with medical-grade sensors still fail to impress the market, perhaps the story will really be over.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.