Amazon discontinues Halo products – and makes them inoperable

Amazon has announced that it will discontinue all products in its Halo series. In addition, the software of the devices will also be stamped out and the team behind it will be dismissed. As of August 1 of this year, the Halo devices are thus useless. Those affected are to be partially compensated.

Cost savings as a goal

Financially, things are no longer going too smoothly at Amazon. While the company’s balance sheets were still improving steadily in the years 2020 to 2022, its success has shrunk since then. For this reason, Amazon wants to cut costs and lay off 27,000 employees worldwide. The company is now taking a step in this direction with the cancellation of the Halo series. The series includes several wristbands that track essential body functions, a smart alarm clock, and an associated app where the data can be accessed. The project was ambitious. The bands were used to track not only pulse and movement data, but also sleep data, for example, which is relatively demanding. Apparently, this did not pay off for Amazon. With the abandonment of the Halo series, the group leaves the field to the competition from Apple, Google and Co, which are also active in this market.

No longer usable as of August

What is unusual about the discontinuation of the series is primarily the fact that Amazon is giving up all support for the software as well as the servers of the applications as well. Ultimately, this means that Halo devices will no longer be usable starting in August. Amazon puts it plainly, “As of August 1, 2023, Amazon Halo devices and the Amazon Halo app will no longer work. Remaining Halo health data will be deleted.”

Anyone who has purchased such a device and uses it regularly is likely to be correspondingly annoyed. Amazon promises compensation only to a limited group of people: Those who have purchased a Halo device or corresponding accessories in the last twelve months will receive a refund. Those who bought earlier, however, will be left empty-handed. Furthermore, no more subscription fees will be debited for all paying customers with immediate effect. Existing subscription credit will be credited.