Jawbone reportedly exiting consumer wearable market, shifting focus to clinical hardware & services

According to a report from TechCrunch, Jawbone is exiting the consumer hardware market and will shift its strategy to selling services and products directly to businesses in the health market. The report comes following earlier claims that Jawbone had run out of money.

This isn’t the first time the company has changed its strategy. Jawbone original started as a headset company, later shifting its focus to Bluetooth speakers and eventually to low-priced wearables.

Specifically, Jawbone plans to sell high-margin health products primarily to clinicians and health providers. Alongside the hardware product, the company also plans to offer a set of software services.

Jawbone is preparing to shift its business yet again — moving from a focus on low-margin fitness bands sold directly to consumers, to a high-margin business to business to consumer model: a health product and accompanying set of services sold primarily to clinicians and health providers working with patients.

To fund its shift, Jawbone is reportedly looking to raise more money from investors. According to today’s report, Jawbone has been communicating with its current investors looking for more funds, while it has also been meeting with new strategic investors and foreign investors.

Last summer, it was reported that Jawbone was exiting the wearables market, but the company later denied those reports, calling them “unequivocally false.”

Nevertheless, it shouldn’t come as too big of a surprise to anyone that Jawbone is exiting the consumer market. The company’s products have long received less-than-stellar reviews. According to a source inside the company, Jawbone had trouble perfecting the relationship between health products and consumer needs, while also struggling to maintain strong margins.

As for what next, not much is known about Jawbone’s clinical wearable, but we’ll surely learn more as time goes on.