Launched in 2012 and discontinued in 2015, the Nike FuelBand failed due to competition, the challenge of focusing on new areas like software, and the lack of clear understanding of consumer motivations to embrace wearable tech.
The FuelBand, being Nike’s first attempt at connected hardware, did have some problems. Although the tracker was pretty good for walking and running, it had difficulties monitoring lower body and weight-resistance activities, such as cycling, yoga, or weightlifting.
Nike could not keep up with the pace of being a technology-driven company. Nike’s FuelBand app at first was only available for iPhone users. Nike may have made the assumption that Android users were not the target audience and did not feel that providing a compatible app was necessary at the time of launch. It took two and a half years to finally make the Nike+ FuelBand app compatible with Android. By this time, other fitness trackers were entering the increasingly saturated market.
