It seems as though Microsoft's new fitness band, the Microsoft Band, is doing a little better than expected.
Those hoping to buy the band for the holiday season may be a little disappointed, with all three sizes being sold out on the Microsoft website.
"We no longer have any [Bands] available for online sale," said an email sent to potential customers of the Band on Monday. The email continued on to urge customers to check local stores that "may" have stock through the holidays.
Customers were also given a one-time $10 promotional code with the future online purchase of $50 or more.
The company does, however, have plans to replenish stock in the near future.
"There are indeed plans to replenish inventory through the holiday season and we're working first to fill back orders in [physical Microsoft] stores," said a spokesperson in an interview.
The band itself received rather good reviews, having a number of sensors and being able to run on multiple smartphone operating systems, including Windows Phone, Android and iOS. Despite the good reviews, many reviewers said that the band was a little uncomfortable and needs a number of tweaks to be a truly great wearable device.
While the lack of stock for the band will likely not affect too many customers, Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, calls the lack of bands a bad business move, saying that Microsoft likely did not want to produce too many units after losing almost $1 billion on the Surface tablets.
"Business-wise, running out of inventory is always better than having to write-off millions or billions of inventory, but running out before the holidays just isn't good business management," said Moorehead.
The popularity of the Band is largely due to the increase in interest in wearable devices. A number of devices are set to start shipping in the near future, including Apple's first wearable device, the Apple Watch. The watch will run Apple's new operating system made specifically for the device, Watch OS. Other popular devices include Motorola's Moto 360, and LG's G Watch R, which are both round watch designs and run on Google's Android Wear.
While smart watches are growing in popularity, fitness-tracking devices have been popular for a few years now. Microsoft's Band is one of these fitness devices, although it, like many other fitness trackers, also takes a number of cues from smart devices, such as the ability to display notifications.
