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Nike CEO 'Excited' About Future of Fitness Partnership with Apple
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Plus if they are getting out of the "hardware" business for the FB team, it hardly makes sense for them to maintain a team of hardware engineers..
Yup, Ben Shaffer..and Jay Blahnik (consultant for the FB)..
http://9to5mac.com/2013/09/27/apple...l-band-designers-to-work-on-wearable-devices/
http://appleinsider.com/articles/13...-fitness-guru-jay-blahnik-for-unknown-project
Think of the possibilities. I too thought it was stupid until i realized they could be looking to potentially replace the iPod nano line with the watch. Then it got my attention.
I'm not sold out on the idea, but I became more accepting once I got away from thinking of it as a phone-like device, and thought of it as more of a fitness tracker/iPod combination.
Nice to hear it finally confirmed, as it has been obvious for quite some time to anyone paying attention.
Nike has been and will continue to be a great partner for Apple. They will bring some instant credibility to the fitness aspects of the watch product.
Nike has been and will continue to be a great partner for Apple. They will bring some instant credibility to the fitness aspects of the watch product.
He may as well have just said they've partnered with Apple on the iWatch type if device.
Also, I noticed that iOS correctly capitalized the word iWatch.
Also, I noticed that iOS correctly capitalized the word iWatch.
My guess is that Cook, in a Nike Board Meeting, told them that he was going to crush their hardware. Outside of the board meeting, Apple might also have suggested that someone with a directly competing product wasn't going to be allowed to put their software on the iBand. So Nike gets out and Nike+ software gets a prime spot.
i would laugh if apple releases an iwatch without nike
I'll bet questions will fly about how much knowledge Tim Cook had with fuel band while sitting on Nike BoD, while Apple was secretly developing a competing device. (Similar to Eric Schmidt being on the BoD of Apple).
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I suspect it would have been put more artfully, such as "Nike can become competitors with Apple or remain as close partners." FWIW, if Apple ended up competing directly with Nike, then Tim Cook's days on the Nike board would be numbered. It's a gig he seems to enjoy, so that puts a little pressure on the other side of the scales.
This is exactly it. This will not go into manufacturing before Apple announce it. For the exact reasons stated above. Once anything hits the production lines, the leaks will come. And Apple know it.
Could happen, but only if Apple and Nike end up becoming direct competitors, which based on what we are hearing, is something they are trying to avoid.
WWDC announcement with release alongside the iPhone 6 with iOS 8/Healthbook in September. That's my guess.
Seems useful for athletes... but seems like Big Brother tracking your wearabouts and general health for regular people. Not buying this.
Like the poster earlier, I almost bought a Fuel Band several times, when I got my place in this year's London Marathon, but never actually pulled the trigger.
I'm not really sure why, but in think the whole "Fuel" thing didn't rest easy with me, as I was a 1st time runner and wanted/needed to keep things simple.
In the end I went for the paid for Runkeeper app on my iPhone, which tracked everything nicely.
I have to say, I'm genuinely looking forward to what Apple have up their sleeves with this iBand/iWatch/iWhatever.
I'm not really sure why, but in think the whole "Fuel" thing didn't rest easy with me, as I was a 1st time runner and wanted/needed to keep things simple.
In the end I went for the paid for Runkeeper app on my iPhone, which tracked everything nicely.
I have to say, I'm genuinely looking forward to what Apple have up their sleeves with this iBand/iWatch/iWhatever.
Pure conjecture on my part, but I wonder if the Nike employees working on the Fuelband had to be "fired" from Nike in order to be hired by Apple? Seems to me if Apple would want anything from Nike's expertise, it would be primarily on the hardware side so why not just hire the Nike employees that were working on the Fuelband?
Both companies obviously wouldn't want to publicize that the Fuelband team now works for Apple because that would make the iWatch even more obvious than it already is. I'm sure Apple would rather acquire the talent themselves as opposed to having a hardware partnership with Nike so that Apple can maintain laser-focused control over the hardware.
Start checking Linkedin profiles of people who were formerly on the Fuelband team at Nike, folks.
There's no way Nike Fuel goes from 30 million units to 100 million units without some sort of help from a giant like Apple. I could see Nike having a partnership with Apple for the software experience just like Apple has partnerships for POI data from third parties for Apple Maps; but I bet Apple would want to hire the Fuelband hardware team so they'd be in-house.
Both companies obviously wouldn't want to publicize that the Fuelband team now works for Apple because that would make the iWatch even more obvious than it already is. I'm sure Apple would rather acquire the talent themselves as opposed to having a hardware partnership with Nike so that Apple can maintain laser-focused control over the hardware.
Start checking Linkedin profiles of people who were formerly on the Fuelband team at Nike, folks.
There's no way Nike Fuel goes from 30 million units to 100 million units without some sort of help from a giant like Apple. I could see Nike having a partnership with Apple for the software experience just like Apple has partnerships for POI data from third parties for Apple Maps; but I bet Apple would want to hire the Fuelband hardware team so they'd be in-house.
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These rumors just don't add up. Apple isn't going to just let someone else handle the software for their "smart watch". Maybe Nike is just going to start building tech into their clothes or something, I don't know. But Apple is going to have and integrated hardware/software solution. I would be shocked to learn otherwise. Unless it's an Office for Mac setup where there's a dedicated iWatch team bunkered up there in Portland or wherever Nike is, my guess is Nike will continue maintaining software for their existing FuelBand Wearers. Apple is pretty zany about who they compete with, and maybe they just came to Nike and were like, look, we're getting into smart band biz... maybe you should think about getting out.
Of course, I'm never right about this stuff.
In hindsight Nike's biggest mistake with the FuelBand was that it catered exclusively to the iPhone-market. This actually led to them getting a smaller slice of the iOS-market than they could have had.
The lack of an Android version led to lots of competitors getting traction - and the vast majority of them supports both Android and iOS, effectively eating away at Nike's share of the iOS market.
If Nike had supported both of those markets I am pretty sure that there would have a fewer serious competitors today than the current jungle of different suppliers.
The lack of an Android version led to lots of competitors getting traction - and the vast majority of them supports both Android and iOS, effectively eating away at Nike's share of the iOS market.
If Nike had supported both of those markets I am pretty sure that there would have a fewer serious competitors today than the current jungle of different suppliers.
I agree, that's highly likely. And I also wonder, as has been speculated, if the rumored iPal, as I like to refer to the iWatch, will be bundled with iPhones in the future, as that would make perfect sense from an integration point of view (although a potentially pricey combo), and would also explain the rumored targeted production of 65 million iWatch units.
i think they will show/demo the iwatch in wwdc it makes sense since IOS 8 has the heath book app.
i think they will show/demo the iwatch in wwdc it makes sense since IOS 8 has the heath book app.
Not necessarily. The 5s has the motion co-processor, as will the next iPhone. Presumably, Healthbook can stand on its own without the watch product.
With that said, I also buy into the theory that they show the watch at WWDC, give devs time to build software for it, and release it sometime later in the year (September/October).
Exactly
Maybe there will be an announcement at WWDC? I think the announcement would have to be around the middle of the year if it was going to release in 2014. Or an announcement at the september/October event for a release in Q1 2015
