Slashdot Mirror

BarbaraHudson writes: The battle between Fitbit and Jawbone may be coming to an end. Business Insider is reporting that wearable fitness maker Jawbone is facing some serious financial problems as the company has almost no inventory in stock and is running out of options to generate revenue. If you click on any of the products for sale on their site, it will say that they're all sold out. Business Insider reports: "Jawbone's Facebook page is littered with complaints from customers saying they have been unable to get in touch with a customer service representative to help with defective products. The Jawbone Facebook account has been responding to these issues, blaming a backup of complaints for the delays. A Jawbone spokesperson said the complaints were because of Jawbone's customer service restructuring. Another person close to Jawbone told Business Insider that there is almost no inventory left and the company is running out of options to generate revenue. The speculation among some Jawbone employees now is that the company might sell to a private equity firm if it can't raise more money, the person close to the company said. Jawbone also declined to explain why its inventory has sold out. A spokesperson said, 'they have sold through what they have to sell.' The company said it was not because it couldn't pay vendors though. It would not provide any estimate on when products would be available for sale on its site again, but did say it planned to make more products." The report says that, according to an internal NexRep email, the company cut ties with the customer service agency NexRep earlier this month after Jawbone failed to make payments. "The email, written to NexRep employees by a NexRep executive, claims that Jawbone is 'struggling financially' and that it couldn't pay NexRep for its services," reports Business Insider. "It also says Jawbone is 'fighting hard' to raise more funding. 'Jawbone is not able to pay us for past services, and their ability to pay us in the future is uncertain at this point,' the NexRep email reads." This resulted in "many staffers being laid off."

turing0 writes "As a former bioinformatics researcher and CTO I have some sad news to start 2012 with. Though I am sure not a surprise to the Slashdot crowd, it appears we — or our demographic — made up more than 75% of the Google Health userbase. Today marks the end of Google Health. (Also see this post for the official Google announcement and lame excuse for the reasoning behind this myopic decision.) The decision of Google to end this excellent service is a fantastic example of what can represent the downside of cloud services for individuals and enterprises. The cloud is great when and while your desired application is present — assuming it's secure and robust — but you are at the mercy of the provider for longevity." (Read more, below.) turing0 continues: "I am surprised to see Google abandoning Google Health just when we can see the benefit to personal health when micro sensors such as the Nike Plus and Jawbone's UP bracelet are entering the market. Greater amounts of personal health data can be gathered now via smartphone and then turned into valuable preventative as well as useful diagnostic medical information.

Shuttering Google Health is a surprising and short-sighted decision on Google's behalf, IMHO. Perhaps closing the Google Health service is not 'Evil' per se — but given the immense magnitude of financial resources at Google I cannot believe Google Health will make a decimal place of impact on Google's operating costs. Services like Google Health are a fantastic public relations tool as well as an amazing potential source of raw scientific data if nothing else.

In closing, it's very funny to note Google suggests Google Health users migrate GH data to the Microsoft Health Vault. Hopefully some Web service other than Health Vault will rise from the ashes of Google Health. The real benefit in terms of Google being a custodian of my health and wellness records via Google Health was that Google as a corporation is considered a trustworthy intermediary by most users and health care professionals. Now I am not so sure; perhaps it's time to re-claim my email ..."