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Amazon introduced it might shut its Halo division. It’s notifying staff within the U.S. and Canada of layoffs and telling Halo customers that the machine and app will now not operate as of August 1.
Amazon Halo is a wrist-worn well being tracker with an accompanying app that makes use of well being metrics designed to offer customers a complete have a look at their well being and wellness and to offer actionable suggestions as a way to make enhancements.
The tech and retail large is offering staff affected by the closure transitional medical health insurance advantages, a separation fee and exterior job placement help.
Clients might be offered full refunds on Amazon Halo Band, Amazon Halo View, Amazon Halo Rise and Amazon Halo accent band purchases made inside the previous 12 months. They’ll additionally obtain refunds for unused Halo subscription charges. The corporate stated well being information pertaining to the Halo wearables will even be deleted on August 1.
“We frequently consider the progress and potential of our merchandise to ship buyer worth, and we repeatedly make changes primarily based on these assessments. We not too long ago made the tough resolution to cease supporting Amazon Halo, efficient July 31, 2023.
“We’re extremely pleased with the invention and exhausting work that went into constructing Halo on behalf of our clients, and our priorities are taking good care of our clients and supporting our staff,” a spokesperson for Amazon instructed MobiHealthNews in an e mail.
THE LARGER TREND
On Wednesday, Amazon started letting go of some staff in its human sources and cloud computing divisions, which had been a part of the beforehand introduced layoffs anticipated to have an effect on 9,000 staff. The corporate had one other spherical of layoffs starting final yr, affecting greater than 18,000 staff.
The corporate entered the wearable machine market in August 2020 with the discharge of Halo. It has since added new options to its wearable, together with Motion Well being, and has up to date the Halo line, including the Halo View in 2021 and Halo Rise in 2022.
Amazon has made a number of strikes into the healthcare area. It closed its $3.9 billion acquisition of major care supplier One Medical in February, shortly after a number of information shops reported the Federal Commerce Fee would not sue to dam the deal.
The corporate bought digital pharmacy PillPack in 2018 and launched Amazon Pharmacy about two years later.
The corporate additionally not too long ago introduced a subscription service for some generic medication that can value a flat charge of $5 per 30 days.