Apple is now preparing for the Apple Watch's arrival by pulling competitor fitness trackers off the shelves of Apple's retail stores, the future home of the Apple Watch.
Two of these rival fitness bands, the Jawbone UP and the Nike+ FuelBand, are no longer available both at the company's physical and online stores.
Apple started removing competing wearables from its stores back in November when the company ceased selling tracking devices from Fitbit. Just like the Jawbone UP and the Nike+ FuelBand, Fitbit also offers the fitness tracking functionality found in the Apple Watch. This includes the metric-based tracking of burned calories, traveled distances, steps taken and stairs climbed.
Right now, the only fitness tracker that has remained in Apple stores is the Mio Alpha Heart Rate Monitor Watch. However, there is a prediction that it will also be kicked out, following a statement from Mio's founder Liz Dickson.
"They said they brought in a new executive in the marketing area who wanted to re-work branding for the stores, and to make the Apple brand more front and center and clean up and minimize the number of accessories," said Dickinson.
Mio is a heart rate tracking device that is worn on the wrist and is available solely in Apple's online store.
Fitness trackers that are not worn on the wrist remain up for sale in the online Apple Store. These include Wahoo and Polar, which have trackers that are worn around one's body. Another non-wrist fitness tracker that is still available online is the Jawbone UP Move, which is a clip-on tracker.
The Apple Watch is arriving in stores on April 24. The company wants consumers to focus their full attention on the device, which features both fitness-focused biometrics sensors and software that are designed to track runs and other types of workout.
Apart from the hype surrounding the Apple Watch, there is also speculation that Fitbit was ousted from Apple stores due to the company's refusal to jump on board Apple's bandwagon regarding the HealthKit device integration platform.
In Nike's case, however, several people believe that Nike had already reached an agreement with Apple long ago where Nike would have to divert its full focus on the software side of the business and treat its fitness tracking hardware business as a thing of the past.
Incidentally, the company was also one of the original partners of Apple in the making of the Apple Watch. A Nike app is said to be given key placement on the device's interface.
Photo: Kazuhiro Keino I Flickr
