• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
Techjawbone

Jawbone To Release A New Health-Focused Wearable

By
Leena Rao
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Leena Rao
Down Arrow Button Icon
May 31, 2016, 1:33 PM ET
Jawbone Up2 fitness band
Jawbone's Up2 fitness bandCourtesy of Jawbone

As Fortune reported exclusively on Friday, fitness tracker maker Jawbone has put its speaker business up for sale as it looks to focus on health and wearables. The company is betting on a new, health-focused wearable device and has stopped producing its current line of wearables, according to separate reports by technology news sites The Verge and Tech Insider.

Jawbone is best known for its UP fitness trackers, a wrist-worn device that premiered in 2011 and tracks things like steps taken, sleep, and heart rate. The company also has a speaker business, introduced in 2010, and produced several different sizes of wireless speakers.

The former Silicon Valley darling has had a tough couple of years amid layoffs, competition with wearable companies like Fitbit and Apple, product delays, and executive shuffles. In November, Jawbone laid off 15% of its global workforce, or about 60 people.

TechInsider reported Friday that Jawbone has stopped producing its UP fitness trackers and sold its remaining inventory of them to a third-party reseller. The Verge then followed up by saying that Jawbone would still make wearable devices, but that it is creating a “clinical-grade health tracking related to heart monitoring.”

It’s unclear if the new device will also be branded as an UP tracker or whether it would have a different name. Further details about when the new device will be available or whether it would be targeted to consumers is unknown.

A Jawbone spokeswoman denied that the UP brand would disappear, and that it has ceased working on the production of the brand. In a statement, she said:

Jawbone has not ceased working on the production of UP products nor do we intend to. Each and every employee at Jawbone is currently focused on the design, development, marketing and production of either our current, or our next generation, UP wearables product line.

As Fortune reported earlier, it’s not particularly surprising that Jawbone is betting on health and wearables while selling its speaker business. Last year, Jawbone’s share of the U.S. speaker market declined to 5%, prompting the company’s co-founder and chairman, Alex Asseily, to tell Fortune’s Adam Lashinsky that selling the non-wearable business would be “painful” but prudent.

“Over the last year we’ve come to terms with the fact that our future value is focused on wellness,” Asseily said at the time. “Audio is great, and I think our audio products, particularly Jambox, are sexier. But it’s not as big a market.”

For more about wearables, watch:

But Jawbone also faces huge competition in health and wearables. Rival Fitbit sells a number of fitness trackers and currently is the leader in the space. Apple, Xiaomi, and Samsung are also all ahead of Jawbone by shipments and market share, according to a report from research firm, IDC.

 

About the Author
By Leena Rao
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map

Latest in Tech

AIRecruiting
To ease recruiters’ fears of being replaced by AI, Zillow experimented with ‘prompt-a-thons.’ Now the real estate giant has 6 new recruitment tools
By Paige McGlauflin and HR BrewJanuary 6, 2026
11 hours ago
zhan, deepak
AIRobotics
Robots are really advancing because they’re learning to think for themselves—and they’re close to figuring out door handles, execs say
By Nick LichtenbergJanuary 6, 2026
12 hours ago
LawAmazon
Amazon is cutting checks to millions of customers as part of a $2.5 billion FTC settlement. Here’s who qualifies and how to get paid
By Sydney LakeJanuary 6, 2026
14 hours ago
InvestingU.S. economy
Ray Dalio says AI is in ‘the early stages of a bubble,’ so watch out for 2026
By Tristan BoveJanuary 6, 2026
14 hours ago
musk
AISocial Media
Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot draws global backlash for generating sexualized images of women and children without consent
By Kelvin Chan and The Associated PressJanuary 6, 2026
14 hours ago
Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi speaking on stage at a Fortune tech conference.
AIEye on AI
Want AI agents to work better? Improve the way they retrieve information, Databricks says
By Jeremy KahnJanuary 6, 2026
14 hours ago

Most Popular

placeholder alt text
Personal Finance
Janet Yellen warns the $38 trillion national debt is testing a red line economists have feared for decades
By Eva RoytburgJanuary 5, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Blackstone exec says elite Ivy League degrees aren’t good enough—new analysts need to 'work harder' and be nice 
By Ashley LutzJanuary 5, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
AI
Experienced software developers assumed AI would save them a chunk of time. But in one experiment, their tasks took 20% longer
By Sasha RogelbergJanuary 5, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Personal Finance
Current price of silver as of Monday, January 5, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJanuary 5, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
Mark Cuban on the $38 trillion national debt and the absurdity of U.S. healthcare: we wouldn't pay for potato chips like this
By Nick LichtenbergJanuary 6, 2026
16 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Future of Work
'Employers are increasingly turning to degree and GPA' in hiring: Recruiters retreat from ‘talent is everywhere,’ double down on top colleges
By Jake AngeloJanuary 6, 2026
14 hours ago

© 2025 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.