The crowdfunding success story won't be finished or shipped to backers
AmpStrip backers, we’ve got some bad news for you. FitLinxx, the company behind the heart rate tracking device, has decided to cancel plans for a consumer-facing fitness product.
“After much discussion and debate, the company has decided to end development of AmpStrip as a fitness product,” Wareable was told by a FitLinxx spokesperson.
“Going forward, the company is focusing on the device’s potential uses as a medical device. As you can imagine, there are so many potential medical benefits – the ability for patients and doctors to monitor irregular heart rate, respiratory function and activity levels to name just a few. FitLinxx believes that in that capacity, this device can make a huge difference in people’s lives.”
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AmpStrip launched on Indiegogo back in January and ending up hitting a whopping 734% of its target – raising more than $500,000 along the way. However, the 3,976 backers won’t be getting their rewards – instead, they’ll be getting a refund.
The size of a plaster, AmpStrip was intended to stick to your chest to track heart rate, activity, exercise load, sleep, skin temperature and posture.
It nabbed itself a CES Innovation Award in January, just as the crowdfunding campaign was going live.
Back in April, Dave Monahan, CEO of Fitlinxx told Wareable: “After I joined Fitlinxx my thought was that everything was heading towards wearable or fitness devices.
“My feeling was that across all technologies, things always go personal. So we looked at what was around, and all fitness and healthcare devices were large, and people wanted to take them home and use them.
“I’m surprised it’s taken so long. We were way ahead of market adoption.”
However we’ve now been informed that the company does not have the resources to support its previous athletic performance objectives.
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