Amazon has sent out notices to Halo Health customers that this division of the company is ceasing operations on July 31 of this year.
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The notification also contains information about layoffs and full refunds of funds that were spent on the purchase of equipment during the last 12 months.
As part of the implementation of this solution, products such as Amazon Halo View, Halo Band, Halo Rise, and many accessories will become history. There are no reasons to characterize the closure of the division as an unprecedented move. Earlier, a similar decision was made by Google management regarding Stadia. In a certain sense, this is a sign of goodwill for customers and a signal that the cost of equipment will not reach cosmic values in the event of the closure of related services.
Amazon will also terminate the subscription fee and refund the funds that were transferred in advance.
The notification received by the clients states that the company, when making strategic decisions about its activities, focuses on a wide scale, and also remains committed to experimenting and investing in the implementation of new ideas.
From the beginning of August, all products related to the division that will be closed will cease to function. Amazon also announced the disposal of equipment and the preservation of scanned images on the camera roll of the phone.
The company has already notified the employees of the division in the USA and Canada about the upcoming layoffs. In other regions, Amazon plans to act according to local regulatory procedures, which may include time for consultations with employee representatives.
For workers who have been laid off, packages of services are provided, including payment for the reduction of the workforce, health insurance benefits for the transition period, and support for external employment.
At the end of March, the company announced 9,000 layoffs. The reduction in the workforce disproportionately affected Amazon’s hardware divisions, with special attention paid to the Alexa/Echo team.
The original Halo tracker distinguished itself by rejecting privacy when it was announced in August 2020. Senator from Minnesota Amy Klobuchar then said that the safety of personal information within certain limits should be a strict guarantee when it comes to the healthcare sector. She also noted that rules should be developed between HHS and the Federal Trade Commission to protect health data.
Amazon’s line of health products continued to grow after that. At the end of 2021, Halo View, an $80 competitor to Fitbit, appeared, as well as additional fitness and nutrition programs. At the end of 2022, sales of Halo Rise, a bedside sleep tracker, started.
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