iWatch Release Date News: Apple Hires Two Former Nike FuelBand Wearable Tech Experts

Early this year Nike announced it would be downsizing its 80-person Fuelband team as a shift from hardware to software. This led many to wonder if the Fuelband has met its end? While no one knows what is going on with Nike an its wearable tech it is certain that Apple is still interested and working on its rumored wearable tech, the iWatch.

According to MacRumors via 9to5Mac, Apple has snatched up two former Nike Fuelband members in June, Ryan Bailey and Jon Gale. Both are said to be brought on for Apple's highly rumored wearable tech device, the iWatch. Bailey served as a Senior Test and Validation Engineer while at Nike and now serves as Mechanical Design Engineer with Apple. Gale was a Senior Firmware Engineer at Nike and is employed as a Sensing Systems Engineer at Apple.

MacRumors reports that Bailey's LinkedIn profile list him as a specializes in wearable tech devices and consumer electronic product development, focusing on providing engineering recommendations to major engineering leads. Meanwhile Gale has developed hardware and firmware architectures for Nike Digital Sport products.

The addition of these two wearable tech engineers can only have two possibilities. Either they are brought on to help further development of Apple's iWatch or they were brought on to help add wearable tech features to Apple's iPhone 6, which is said to be health focused. Wearable tech functions on the iPhone 6 would make sense in addition with the health initiative Apple is taking plus it can work in conjunction with the Health app.

But then again Apple could be pulling a Samsung and making a device that works with both the Health app and new iPhone. In the past year Apple has hired several experts in the health and fitness team including fitness guru Jay Blahnik, sleep expert Roy Raymann, pulse oximetry expert and former Chief Medical Officer Michael O'Reilly and several other specialist from notable sensor companies.

With so many experts working on one device we can't wait to see what this thing does! The iWatch is expected to be released this fall alongside the iPhone 6 around late September or early October.