BY JAMES SCOTT/ April 27, 2023
According to an announcement by Amazon today (via Bloomberg), the company will no longer sell its "Halo" brand of health and fitness bands.
Halo
A low-cost alternative to the Apple Watch, the first Halo band was released in August 2020 to compete with the Apple Watch.
Halo
The Halo wristband did not have a watch face; it provided a sensor module that could be worn on the wrist. It included an accelerometer, a temperature sensor, a heart rate monitor, two microphones, and an LED indicator light.
Halo
It was used with an app that presented the health information gathered through the band.
Halo
The band cost $99. However, it did not have GPS, WiFi, cellular connectivity, or interaction with Alexa. Additionally, several capabilities require an Amazon Prime membership to access them.
Halo
The 3D body scan feature and the speech analysis tool that Amazon implemented have been criticized for their intrusiveness.
Halo
The scanning function requested that users dress in as little as possible so that the camera on their smartphone could see their body, while the tone readings used the always active microphones.
Halo