Wednesday, October 16, 2013

New Nike FuelBand Ramps Connected Products Push

Is Nike an athletics company, or a connected device company? The latest release by Nike, the Nike+ FuelBand SE, is further blending the line betwen athletics and technology. Nike's rolled out its latest FuelBand with a new effort to attract partners to develop connected products using the FuelBand, saying it will launch the Nike+ Fuel Lab, which will set up shop in San Francisco, and help support ten partner companies with tools, resources, and support to create products which integrate the FuelBand. Nike said the new program is based on its prior, Nike+ Accelerator program, and also will run for 12 weeks. The new FuelBand includes a significant number of added features to Nike's apps, including tracking of sessions, hourly goals, group sharing, and much more.