Apple is on a hiring spree, snatches two former FuelBand specialists

Jul 8, 2014 23:19 GMT  ·  By

With the release of the rumored iWatch, Apple needs more and more experts to make sure their product is going to be the best in the business. 

 
The Cupertino-based computer company has had no experience building hardware for sports and health monitoring, so getting the best specialists in that field is a must. Apple's latest acquisition is a duo from Nike FuelBand. 
 
According to 9to5Mac, Ryan Bailey and Jon Gale have recently joined the flock. Bailey was a Senior Test and Validation Engineer at Nike and now has taken the position of Mechanical Design Engineer. Gale was a Senior Firmware Engineer at Nike and he's now a Sensing System Engineer at Apple. 
 
In his LinkedIn profile, cited by macrumors, Bailey is great with wearable devices and consumer electronic product development. Gale is also specialized in developing hardware and firmware architectures for Nike's Digital Sport products. 
 
"Primary responsibility is to define both the hardware and firmware architectures for Nike Digital Sport products. Additionally, I managed the development of product firmware through partner companies. Responsible for delivering firmware to validate the design in a manufacturing environment, define and implementation of custom protocols to interact with other components of the Nike ecosystem, and translate high-level product requirements into actionable, testable definitions. I personally owned the delivery of firmware for the Nike FuelBand product line," says Jon Gale. 
 
The source does not specify whether the two have joined an existing wearable technology division at Apple, or if they are going to build the team that will work on the iWatch. 
 
However, Apple was on a roll hiring health and fitness experts in the past few months. Fitness guru Jay Blahnik, sleep expert Roy Eaymann, pulse oximetry expert and former Chief Medical Officer Michael O'Reilly and a few other scientists and executives from around the world have joined the rumored iWatch team. 
 
The last to be added to Apple's long list of high-ranked executives was Patrick Pruniaux, the former sales director for luxury watch maker TAG Heuer. He will probably be in charge of making sure the iWatch gets the Marketing attention it deserves. 
 
The Wall Street Journal says the iWatch will have 10 different sensors and will track health and fitness metrics. 
 
On another note, Apple has opened the HealthKit API to developers. Anyone can use the information provided by the iPhone's M7 chip to develop apps that will track anything from caffeine or calories consumption to movement and speed. The user will be ultimately in charge of deciding what info he is going to share with the Health apps in iOS 8.