As I’m sure many of you have seen, Nike+ is built-in to the new iPhone 3GS! Very exciting stuff indeed. Nike was really onto something a few years back when they made the bet that people listening to their music while they run would also want to track their stats and engage in a broader community, making their solitary runs more social and competitive.
Nike is obviously a big, global brand. They also have an oversized marketing budget, to say the least. So, why on earth would we be happy about their arrival on the iPhone? For starters, Nike’s solution uses a sensor and accelerometer, and not GPS. This means that you need to go out and buy a separate sensor (and for best results, Nike shoes) to use the Nike system. With RunKeeper, all you need is you and your iPhone. Second, the lack of GPS also means that Nike’s solution incorporates no location data. It can track distance (sort of) by number of steps, but isn’t as accurate as GPS tracking and shows no path traveled on a map. It also assumes a set stride length, so for activities like interval training where your pace varies, it becomes inaccurate quickly. Third, with the Nike solution, it only works when you are doing activities involving taking steps, which means that it is useless for activities like cycling, skiing, skating, and others that do not involve putting one foot in front of the other. RunKeeper is much more versatile across a wide range of activities.
So, why doesn’t Nike just incorporate GPS? Well, according to Michael Tchao, the head of Nike+, “We really wanted to separate ourselves from that sort of very technical, geeky side of things. Everyone understands speed and distance.” If I may, I’m going to question his true motives on this one. Is that really why, or is it because Nike is a sneaker company that doesn’t want to untether users from Nike shoes since selling shoes is their core business? According to the Disruptive Innovation concept that was popularized by Clayton Christensen, almost all organizations that have “died” or been displaced from their industries (because of a new paradigm or customer offering) could see the disruption coming but did nothing until it was too late. I have a very hard time believing that a running shoe company (albeit an incredible one) is forward-thinking enough to build a community of users that has no need to invest in that company’s running shoes and/or technology in order to participate.
Now back to my initial contention that Nike+ coming to the iPhone is a good thing for RunKeeper. Here is this big mega-brand with deep pockets marching in and educating every iPhone owner on why they should be running with their iPhone. And, oh wait, there is little RunKeeper with a superior solution and no additional technology required, just waiting to capitalize on all of Nike’s hard work on the marketing front. Even better is that the RunKeeper solution is still so new, I can’t tell you how many improvements we have coming in the next several months. But please, I beg you, don’t tell Nike!
By the way, I am pleased to report that in the week since the new iPhone 3GS came out with Nike+ built-in, RunKeeper’s daily downloads (of both RunKeeper Free and RunKeeper Pro) have almost doubled and we have jumped from #11 to #8 in the App Store health/fitness rankings. Did I mention that we have several new features coming in the next few weeks?
Gary,
I’ve found that the zCover case and armband works best for my 3G. Unfortunately, I can’t offer any advice pertaining to bluetooth headphones as I’m still using a wired set. Good luck.
@admin/Jason I upgraded to Pro and the new interval workouts works great! It’s exactly what I needed for my run-walk training routine. Before I had my watch set to beep at 3min and 1min intervals. Since I was listening to music I would sometimes not hear the beep, which meant I would keep checking my watch. Checking my watch was a distraction and would mess up my rhythm. Now I can just focus on my workout. Was also pleasantly surprised that the audio cues didn’t go away. Super impressive.
Hi all
I had Nike+ but this is much, much better. I just did my favorite run along the shore at Langstone and it was great. I love the speed / elevation graph and I can’t wait to take it skiing this winter. Also, where can I get the Run Keeper t shirt ?????
thanks so much
alex
A slight correction: my understanding is that the Nike+ solution (and other accelerometer-based devices, like Fit Bit) don’t require a consistent length of stride for accurate measurement. In fact, back in the 80s (I believe) there was some research that showed extremely accurate measurement of distance based on the length of time a foot makes contact with the ground, irrespective of stride length. In other words, the faster you run, well, the faster you run. This gives these accelerometer-based devices an added feature that GPS-based devices don’t have: accuracy in poor GPS conditions. Nonetheless, I’m loving Run Keeper.
I love runkeeper. But it doesnt work very well when running in the terrain. For example, I ran a 5000 track. First time it said 4.50km, next time 4,64. That track is really close close to 5000m and are used in competetions. The readon rk fails is because it misses when the track has lot of tight bends.
If RK could solve this problem it would rule. Now I have to consider Nike+ instead.
I loved Nike+ until I got my iPhone, I was upset to find out that Nike+ didn’t work with the phone, until I stumbled upon rk. This is by far the better of the two. Forget the accelerometer mumbo jumbo from Mr. Johansson. RK is better, beacuse they have inclued the edit feature on the website. When you edit the run you can correct some of the problems that GPS causes. With GPS it takes waypoints at given periods, when you cut a corner, the line goes straight between the points. Again a feature you can fix with the editing feature.
Nike+ receiver/pod – $30
Nike+ shoes – $70 and up
Replacements every few months $30, AGAIN!!
Runkeeper Pro – $10, ONCE, FOREVER!!!
You make the call.
The only danger I see here is that RK indeed is small. Meaning that Apple might value their teaming-up with Nike so much that they’ll at some point remove RK-like apps from the store claiming that they double the functionality of the Iphone.
Nike is following the great success of RK very closely and at some point (if not already) CEOs are pushing at Apple HQ to get their company some special interest.