Snippet: Nike Fires FuelBand Team, Might Stop Making Hardware? ☇

Nick Statt for CNET:

Nike is gearing up to shutter its wearable-hardware efforts, and the sportswear company this week fired the majority of the team responsible for the development of its FuelBand fitness tracker, a person familiar with the matter told CNET. […]

The shoemaker isn’t throwing in the towel on technology. Rather, it’s turning away from hardware and realigning its focus exclusively on fitness and athletic software, a strategic shift that would still benefit the company in the long run, analysts said.

If it’s me reading the signs (and others have already suggested it), Nike’s decision to focus on software really opens to door for someone else to get involved in these kind of devices, especially when you consider who is on the board. Then again, maybe people really aren’t getting excited about wearables when smartphones can handle these things and Nike is making a smart exit.

Update: Re/code is reporting that Nike is denying the report about the shutdown, but that there were a few layoffs.