Nike offers Nike+iPod update, new products and features coming
The distance is the equivalent to circling the world more than 40 times, the shoe maker said.
Nike releases some user stats
Yesterday, nearly 8,000 people logged runs on nikeplus.com — including an almost eight-mile run in New York, two and a half miles in Boston, five miles in Boulder, two miles in Miami, six miles in Nashville, four miles in Phoenix, three miles in Seattle and two miles in Peoria.
Nike said some of the top times so far include: 27 minutes and 43 seconds for a 10k run, and 13 minutes, 47 seconds for a 5k run. Meanwhile farthest total distance achieved by a single runners is reported in excess of 600 miles.
"Nikeplus.com is fast becoming the world's biggest online running community," said Trevor Edwards, Nike's chief marketing officer. "Nike+ is a new running experience, a new way to train, a new way to connect with other runners, and a new way to bring music and sport together like never before. A million miles in 10 weeks is just the beginning. We're looking forward to the billionth mile."
Announced in May with availability that began in July, the Nike+iPod Sport Kit is a wireless system that allows Nike+ enabled footwear to talk with your iPod nano, connecting runners to a personal running and workout experience. Data on time, distance, calories burned and pace is stored on the nano and is easily downloaded through iTunes to nikeplus.com, a personal service site where runners can track their own progress and challenge other runners.
New Nike+ products and features in the pipeline
Also on Wednesday, Nike said it is working to expand its Nike+ product offerings, add functionality on nikeplus.com and create original sport music content in the Nike Sport Music section of the iTunes Store. One of the new features that will be added to nikeplus.com will be a route finder that will let runners easily map and share their favorite running routes, the company said.
In October, Nike will roll out Nike+ products in additional European markets, including France, Spain, Italy, Germany and The Netherlands, as well as Japan and Australia.
The shoe maker currently offers 12 styles of Nike+ enabled footwear and says more models due out soon.
Apple has sold over 450,000 of the $30 Nike+iPod Sport Kits since the kits were made available in mid-July, the company said last week.
31 Comments
Run Forest, run!
I would like to see some hardware upgrade as well, most specifically, user-replaceable battery. Nike+iPod kit does not cost a whole lot, but throwing it out whenever the battery dies seems environmentally irresponsible. It would be nice if the receiver functionality is a built-in to iPod nano as well (requires the purchase of just the transmitter). Oh, and it should have auto pause and heart rate.
That transmitter is HUGE. Almost as big as an entire iPod Shuffle!
frankly (sadly) I've not been impressed at all with the product and i've used it a lot. I've logged over 250 miles on it, which puts me in the top 20 in for males in my age group in the US. And let me also say that i'm not actually a big runner. there is no way I should be ranked up that high if the product is really penetrating the marketplace. I've used it with three different sets of shoes. Bottom line is that it is not reliable at all. generally I find it to be 20% off my my actual mileage and I have found it to vary dramatically when one's pace varies from that run during calibration. Running hills also seems to result in big differences. As a last point, doesn't it seem odd that only with 1 million miles have beenn run against 450,000 units. By my math that's just over 2 miles per unit. Hardly indicates that the purchasers are having good experiences unless they simply are not uploading their data. Sorry to be such a downer. I'm actually a huge Apple and Nike fan and have about 20% of my investment portfolio invested in AAPL right now. So i'd love to see them make this work! I'd LOVE to see a "Pro" version that integrates seriously upgraded software capabilities and most importantly, GPS. Right now, Garmin's got the only good running solution out there.
I'd like to see something affordable for cyclists. Also, a heart rate monitor would be useful for any sport and surely wouldn't be that tricky to do.