"The demo model the company supplied Fortune, for example, stopped taking a charge after a few weeks, so it ended up where broken watches typically do—in a dresser drawer rather than on a wrist."<p>Basically summarizes their UP product line. Three years in the making and nothing has changed. Warranty lasts one year after which you are out of luck. Turn around time when a product breaks is roughly 2 weeks with communication, processing + shipping.
If you've been incorporated for 16 years and still haven't made it, you really shouldn't be allowed to call yourself a startup.<p>You're just a company. There's nothing wrong with being just a company. But you're not a startup.
Until pretty recently, I just thought of Jawbone as the company that made (dorky[1]) Bluetooth headsets. Then I watched Rahman's lecture in the YC/Stanford startup class[2] and was extremely impressed. The lecture wasn't that great, but the man struck me as "formidable" in the PG sense[3]. Obviously, a lot of VCs see that too. I don't think it's just smoke.<p>I know nothing else about him (no idea about the brogrammer thing, sounds awful) but if I were a betting man I would be betting on Jawbone right now because of their CEO, despite everything in this article.<p>[1] I'm very pro-wearables, and don't mind being labelled as dorky myself, but that's the public perception.<p>[2] <a href="http://startupclass.samaltman.com/courses/lec17/" rel="nofollow">http://startupclass.samaltman.com/courses/lec17/</a><p>[3] <a href="http://paulgraham.com/convince.html" rel="nofollow">http://paulgraham.com/convince.html</a>
I always found the headsets compelling, yet too quiet. I had the original and then later an Icon, and love the noise-cancelling technology. Even in a convertible with the top down on the freeway it sounded great on the other end.<p>But I always fall back to my Shure in-ear headphones because the audio was too quiet for me. If you seal the ear canal you can get away with quieter audio, but Jawbones don't seal your ear canal that way. Too bad.
"Hardware doesn’t make money for Jawbone today"<p>Hard to believe given the retail cost of their product line.
Unfortunately, this means they're going to have to make their money elsewhere...<p>"the Nest doesn’t know if you’re hot or cold. I will."<p>I like the idea of these fitness trackers, but this seems to be the endgame for the business models of all the companies involved (whether or not they admit it).
Hosain Rahman at Startup School is worth a watch for more background on Jawbone's story and its many challenges along the way.<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpINPjfSlZc" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpINPjfSlZc</a>