Amazon are to shut down their Amazon Halo division, the cutting edge health & wellness band that tracks everything from your sleep patterns and heart rate to step count and body fat. This means that the last day those that own a device will be able to use it will be the 31st of July this year.
Amazon are binning the entire Halo division as part of the rationalisation of operations which has also seen the UK Book Depository division shuttered.
At Amazon, we think big, experiment, and invest in new ideas like Amazon Halo in our efforts to delight customers. While we are proud of what we built, we recently made the difficult decision to stop supporting Amazon Halo effective July 31, 2023.
– Amazon
All staff that worked in the Halo division will be let go and for customers, Amazon will fully refund all purchase made in the preceding 12 months of Amazon Halo View, Amazon Halo Band, Amazon Halo Rise, and Amazon Halo accessory bands. Any unused prepaid Halo subscriptions fees will also be refunded.
Customers can download their data ahead of Halo being scrapped, although it’s not clear what use this data will be as it’s historical, will never be added to and probably isn’t compatible with any other devices. As for the devices themselves, well they’ll be worthless apart from popping into a museum of defunct tech, but you can recycle both the now worthless devices and accessories through the Amazon Recycling Program.
Amazon have a history of innovating fast and scrapping projects that don’t work out – anyone remember the fate of the Fire Phone? It’s the way that they do businesses but has been exacerbated by the slowdown since the pandemic… even though the Halo was only launched during the pandemic in August 2020.
None of this is likely to endear Amazon to those that have invested hundreds of dollars in Halo device and accessories and based their fitness and wellness regime around the devices. They are going to be a bit miffed to say the least.
