Amazon ditches Halo unit, announces discontinuation of fitness wearable devices

Amazon Inc. has gotten rid of Halo, its health-focused business unit. With the shutdown, all of the wearables and devices under the brand will also be discontinued.

Amazon’s decision to pull the plug on its Halo division will eventually affect the management team, so there will also be layoffs. A small percentage of the Halo team is set to lose jobs, but there is no specific number of job cuts yet.

At this time, the e-commerce and tech firm has already halted the sale of three Halo products which were only released a few years ago. Amazon unveiled its health-tracking bracelet in 2020 only, and this marked the company’s first venture into the wearable device business. This also brought the company deeper into the healthcare industry.

Halo’s Band, View, and Rise were already taken down from Amazon’s e-commerce platform. Then again, it was noted that while these are no longer available on Amazon, they may still be offered by some third-party retailers.

When these were launched, Amazon was hoping the devices could compete with the leading brands such as Samsung, Apple, and Fitbit health and fitness wearables. But apparently, this is the end for Halo, at least for now, since it can still be revived later.

Amazon said it would provide a full refund to customers who bought the Halo devices or accessories in the last 12 months. In addition, all prepaid Halo subscription fees that are not yet used will also be refunded. Amazon will no longer charge all users as well as the devices will stop working in August.

“We are fully refunding customer purchases made in the preceding 12 months, and we are supporting impacted employees,” Amazon said in a statement. “We recently made the very difficult decision to stop supporting Amazon Halo effective July 31, 2023. We are incredibly proud of the invention and hard work that went into building Halo on behalf of our customers, and our priorities are taking care of our customers and supporting our employees.”

The company also addressed the impending layoffs by stating, “We notified impacted employees in the U.S. and Canada today. For employees who are impacted by this decision, we are providing packages that include a separation payment, transitional health insurance benefits, and external job placement support.”

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