It all comes down to the recent hires.
Per The Mac Observer, Apple has apparently snagged two former Nike FuelBand engineers for what could be its wearable technologies/iWatch project. The new hires are Jon Gale, who wrote FuelBand firmware code for Nike and Ryan Bailey, who worked as a hardware engineer on the FuelBand team. While not officially confirmed by Apple, it’s been surmised that the two will be working on an Apple fitness tracking device effort
Mr. Gale’s title at Apple is Sensing Systems Engineer, according to his LinkedIn profile, and Mr. Bailey is a Mechanical Design Engineer. Both have plenty of experience with the FuelBand fitness tracker.
Gale and Bailey are arriving at Apple following significant layoffs among the Nike FuelBand team, wherein Nike is now developing software for other outfits looking to make fitness tracking devices. Mr. Gale and Mr. Bailey aren’t the first Nike employees Apple has hired. The iPhone and iPad maker previously hired high tech fabric designer Ben Shaffer, fitness expert Jay Blahnik who worked for the company as a wearable fitness tracker consultant.
Apple’s fitness and wearables hiring list also includes health sensor expert Dr. Michael O’Reilly, non-invasive medical sensor expert Marcelo Lamego, sleep expert Roy Raymann, Alex Hsieh from Atlas Wearables, FDA approval process expert Divya Nag, fashion industry expert Paul Deneve, and more.
The hires follow a declaration by Apple CEO Tim Cook, who has stated that he is “extremely interested” in wearable technology, but has yet to confirm the long-rumored “iWatch”.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.