????不久前的一個周五晚上爆出了一個重大新聞：耐克公司（Nike）炒掉了FuelBand團隊的大部分成員，將停止生產可穿戴設備。對買過、用過、報道過或投資過所謂“可穿戴設備”這款炙手可熱產品的人來說，這個消息都不啻于晴天霹靂。

????這樣一來，一度被捧為下一代計算大平臺的可穿戴“智能”設備，如健康追蹤腕帶、卡扣式心臟監護儀、谷歌眼鏡、智能手表，甚至還有智能假發（沒錯，就是智能假發）突然之間就魅力大減。

????2013年，耐克公司售出了約3300萬美元的FuelBand腕帶，為此它招了200名員工，甚至圍繞這個設備開展了一個加速計劃。如果它都對可穿戴設備沒興趣了，這是不是意味著這種設備氣數將盡了？耐克又是怎么知道我們沒興趣了呢？

????這個消息曝出后，一些可穿戴設備頂級制造商就開始公開造勢，大肆渲染自己業務的美好未來。本周在紐約舉行的TechCrunch Disrupt大會上，Jawbone公司首席執行官侯賽因?拉赫曼稱，公司將擴展它追蹤的數據量，增加服務種類。Jawbone的UP腕帶現在已占健康追蹤市場19%的份額。同時，以68%的市場份額雄踞市場老大的Fitbit公司則對科技資訊網（CNET）做了一個簡短聲明，稱自己這么做早已有七年之久了。憑借Flex、One和Zip這些產品，“盡管最近冒出了幾條聳人聽聞的頭條新聞，”Fitbit照樣自信滿滿。

????耐克也站出來澄清最初的報道，稱不是要放棄所有的健康追蹤業務，只是放棄硬件罷了。耐克將不再生產FuelBand，但還會繼續為智能手機、智能手表以及各種智能設備打造軟件和健康追蹤應用。

????不過，現有的健康追蹤和可穿戴設備顯然需要改進。現在很多健康追蹤器都是又大又難看、戴起來也不舒服的腕帶。而更大的問題在于它們的實際功能。正如我的同事JP?曼格林丹本周初所寫的那樣，他想變成數字達人的愿望落了空，因為這些設備上的可用選項要求他使用完全不同、彼此無法兼容的系統：

????有一天，我開始停止使用任何設備。本來我花了好幾百美元買硬件買軟件，再把它們生拉硬湊到一起，以為這樣就能全面了解我每天的健康信息了。但實現這個目標的過程感覺真是太費事了——睡覺需要一種腕帶，白天需要另外一種，吃飯需要一種應用，跑步又得用別的。為什么就不能有種軟硬件一體的設備來執行所有這些任務呢？

????除了這一點，對絕大多數人來說，光知道自己每天走了多少步其實沒什么吸引力。咨詢公司Endeavor Partners的一份報告稱，這也是為什么有三分之一的消費者沒再用這類設備。而業內人士稱，實際停用的健康追蹤設備數量很可能比這多得多。

????可穿戴設備和健康追蹤器要想成為我們生活中不可或缺的一部分，它們就必須成為“必不可少的”、而不是“有了也不錯”的時髦玩意。要實現這個目標，唯一的辦法是具備更好的功能。我曾和Misfit公司的首席執行官桑尼?烏探討過這種產品今后的發展。他的公司直到最近還叫Misfit Wearables，然后才去掉wearables這個詞。

????The news broke on a recent Friday night: Nike Fires Majority of FuelBand Team, Will Stop Making Wearable Hardware. It was a shock to just about anyone who had bought, worked on, wrote about, or invested in the white-hot category called "wearables."

????Hailed as the next big platform in computing, wearable "smart" devices like fitness tracking bracelets, clip-on heart monitors, Google Glass, smartwatches, and even smart wigs (yes, smart wigs) suddenly looked a lot less interesting.

????If Nike (NKE), which had sold an estimated $33 million worth of FuelBand bracelets in 2013, employing 200 people and even running an accelerator program around the device, was no longer interested, did this spell disaster for the category? What does Nike know that the rest of us didn't?

????Since the news, the top wearable makers have openly touted the future of their business. This week at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York, Hosain Rahman, CEO of Jawbone, said his company will expand the amount of data it tracks and services around it. Jawbone's UP band accounts for 19% of the fitness tracking device market. Meanwhile Fitbit, which dominates the category with 68% market share, made a short statement to CNET that it's been doing this for seven years, guys. Fitbit, with products like the Flex, One, and Zip, remains confident, "despite some of the recent sensationalized headlines."

????Even Nike has clarified the initial report, saying it is not giving up on all of fitness tracking, only the hardware part. Nike will stop producing FuelBands itself, but it will continue to build software and fitness tracking apps for phones, smartwatches, and whatever other form factor smart devices take.

????Nonetheless, it's clear the fitness tracking and wearables need to evolve beyond their initial offerings. Many of the fitness trackers in their current form are large, unattractive, uncomfortable bracelets. But an even bigger issue is what these devices do. As my colleague JP Mangalindan wrote earlier this week, his quest to become a quant junkie failed when the available options required him to use disparate systems that didn't talk to each other:

????One day, I just stopped using everything. I had invested hundreds of dollars into hardware and software and cobbled them together so I could to get a holistic picture of my day. But the process felt too complicated for its own good -- a wristband for sleeping, another for the daytime. An app for eating, and then another running. Why couldn't there be one piece of hardware and software to rule them all?

????Beyond that, merely knowing how many steps you've taken each day isn't all that compelling to a large, mainstream audience. It's why one-third of consumers have abandoned their devices, according to a report by Endeavor Partners. Industry insiders say the number of inactive fitness tracking devices is likely much higher than that.

????For wearables and fitness trackers to become a permanent part of our lives, the devices must become "need to have," not "nice to have." The only way to do that is to offer better functionality. I spoke with Sonny Vu, CEO of Misfit, about the future of the category. His company was called Misfit Wearables until recently, when it dropped the word "wearables" from its name.