Kevin Bostic
Nike on Sunday revealed that it is not working on bringing its iOS-exclusive Nike+ FuelBand fitness monitoring app to Google's Android platform, disappointing some Android fans and seemingly reversing a position the company took last year.
In a tweet from @NikeSupport, the company said on Sunday that "right now, we're focused on iOS and web. We're not working on an Android app."
As Droid Life pointed out, previous Nike tweets from March of 2012 indicated that the company would be rolling out an Android app by the summer of 2012. Nike gave no reason for the delay or cancellation of its Android app.
Nike public relations department released a statement saying that "to deliver the best experience for all Nike+ FuelBand users, we are focusing on the FuelBand experience across iOS and nikeplus.com, where you can sync your activity, set new goals, and connect with friends. At this time, we are not working on an Android version of the mobile app."
The initial tweet has sparked some indignation from a number of Android fans, who claim they were led to believe that an Android app was forthcoming. @NikeSupport has been encouraging those fans to sync all of their data with nikeplus.com on their computers, as the website does not need an app to work.
While Nike gave no explanation behind its decision to apparently abandon its Android app project, it may be that the platform's fragmentation remains an issue even for a company with the resources of Nike. A survey in 2011 found that 87 percent of Android developers found fragmentation to be a problem for the platform, making it difficult to standardize features for apps.
The Nike FuelBand is available at Nike and Apple stores, in addition to Amazon.
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44 Comments
The title obviously should read "snubs" not "snuffs" unless they are spraying random Android users with AK-47's.
So why would Nike want to limit the amount of money it can make by excluding millions of Android users? Simple. Apple came to see Nike and said "hey, we are about to release the iWatch, which is going to eat your fuel band alive. Why don't we partner up so you can continue to make money and we can benefit from your experience in the arena. The new Apple iWatch with Nike built in. Of course if you want to do this partnership, we will need you to make a public statement about not supporting Android."
Of course. Geeks in their basements never exercise, so why would Nike make this avialable for them?
On a serious note, fragmentation is a major issue with Android despite what the haters say. There's a reason why developers continue to favor iOS for new projects and why iOS gets most stuff first.
Is it a snub or is that even with the growing number of android users, their demographic curves towards ios users. Or as some developers have claimed android is a nightmare to write apps for.
Nike public relations department released a statement saying that "to deliver the best experience for all Nike+ FuelBand users, we are focusing on the FuelBand experience across iOS and nikeplus.com, where you can sync your activity, set new goals, and connect with friends. At this time, we are not working on an Android version of the mobile app."
Android users should be ashamed of themselves for drinking their own brand of Kool-aid and believing that their half-baked, fragmented-out-of-control Android OS is even remotely close to being polished and stable compared to iOS.
It was only a few weeks ago that I read an article talking about how the majority of Android OS devices are still running the ages-old Gingerbread OS, while their new Jellybean is still at less than 2% after how long?? Shameful. Downright shameful.
Despite what Fandroids are whining about from the comfort of the basement armchairs, the reality is iOS offers a far better platform to develop for actual PAYING consumers. Only the tech-head community complains about this. I'll bet most typical Android smartphone users could not care any less about this problem.
So please Android-lovers, go cry me a river elsewhere. On the other hand, just go away.