Just half a decade ago, Nike was among the driving forces bringing fitness wearables to the mainstream. The consumer footwear and athletic apparel company launched its FuelBand fitness tracker in 2012, and a year later stood alongside Fitbit and Jawbone as one of the only major players to hold a substantial share of the wearable retail market. Now, five years later, the wearable has been...
The Nike Training Club app
Since Under Armour created its Connected Fitness platform with three major fitness app acquisitions, it has thrown down the gauntlet when it comes to owning online engagement and sales. Adidas made it clear in the summer, with its $240 million acquisition of Runtastic, that it was willing to play Under Armour's game.
But what about Nike, the company that was the...
Some 21 percent of US adults use a wearable device right now, and of those, 36 percent use a Fitbit device, according to a Forrester Research survey of 952 online US adults.
After Fitbit, 16 percent use a Nike+ FuelBand, 16 percent use an Apple Watch, 13 percent use Samsung Galaxy Gear, 11 percent use a Microsoft Band, and 10 percent use a Jawbone device.
Forrester also broke out the age...
Nike and Apple have agreed to settle a class action lawsuit, first filed two years ago, that claimed the companies made misleading statements about the Nike+ FuelBand's ability to track calories, steps, and NikeFuel. The lawsuit also argued that there was a failure to honor the warranty terms for Nike+ FuelBand.
Nike and Apple deny these allegations, but according to the settlement, in order to...
Nike has announced that users of its Nike+ Running app will now be able to pull data from fitness devices made by Garmin, TomTom, Wahoo Fitness, and Netpulse.
Users that own a Garmin, TomTom, Wahoo Fitness, or Netpulse device can download the Nike+ Running app and pair their device.
Nike updated other features in the Nike+ Running app, which is available on iOS and Android devices. For iOS users...
Nike has updated its Nike+ Fuel app for iOS for the first time since September, adding connectivity with Apple HealthKit, new social sharing features, and, in keeping with a recent fitness band trend, the option to eschew the Nike+ FuelBand hardware entirely and track movement via sensors embedded in the user's smartphone. The app has also dropped "Band" from its name, further distancing the...
Over the past few months China-based WeChat, an instant messaging app that has around 500 million active users, has added fitness tracking integration into its app, according to a post from TechInAsia. WeChat is a subsidiary of Tencent.
The WeChat app is available in the US, Hong Kong, India, China, Thailand, and Indonesia, although the new feature is currently only available in Chinese.
WeChat...
The five trackers used in the study.
A new study from the American Council on Exercise (ACE) looked at five popular consumer activity trackers and evaluated them for accuracy. The study found that five devices -- Nike+ FuelBand, Fitbit Ultra, Jawbone UP, BodyMedia FitCore and Adidas MiCoach -- all tracked steps relatively accurately, but many were less accurate when it comes to tracking...
Seventy percent of US consumers own a smartphone, while just 5.7 percent own a fitness-sensing wristband, according to a GlobalWebIndex survey of 7,500 US internet users conducted in the fourth quarter of 2014.
Although GlobalWebIndex labeled the category "smart wristband", in the survey question, the research company used Nike+ FuelBand, Jawbone Up, and Adidas miCoach as its only examples. Two...
Startup accelerator Techstars has launched a post-accelerator program, called Techstars++ that provides exposure for entrepreneurs who have completed the Techstars accelerator. Techstars' launch partner is Mayo Clinic.
Post-accelerator startups can use the Techstars++ network to spend time learning from and engaging with a corporate partner.
"For example, after completing Techstars, healthcare-...
