Last month, Apple made two key hires as it continues to bolster its team of wearables experts ahead of its highly anticipated iWatch launch, which will undoubtedly be the first of many wearable devices Apple will release in the coming years. After Nike recently discontinued its FuelBand product line, stating that it will instead focus on software, several members of the 80-person FuelBand team were let go. Now, as 9to5Mac reports, two of them have joined Apple.
According to the report, former FuelBand team members Ryan Bailey and Jon Gale were both hired by Apple in June.
Bailey was formerly Nike’s Senior Test and Validation Engineer for the FuelBand, and his LinkedIn profile now lists him as Mechanical Design Engineer at Apple. Gale had been Nike’s Senior Firmware Engineer focusing on the FuelBand line of wrist-worn fitness trackers, and he is now Apple’s Sensing Systems Engineer.
Apple is expected to launch the iWatch this year, sometime ahead of the holidays. Several recent reports have suggested that the device’s release could come in October.
