Could the NikeiPod alliance, so successful in those early days, be reignited to spearhead a new breed of wearables No.If you click through using links on the site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Despite leaving this mortal coil so soon (two versions, three years) the FuelBand fitness tracker was undoubtedly a pioneer.
![]() Essential reading: How does a fitness tracker work It might have launched after the first ever Fitbit, but this was the fitness tracker that got people comparing Fuel Points, even though no one ever really knew what Nikes metric meant or how it was calculated. While every device reports back on your activity, this was the first time wed experienced that insight. You could sit at your desk waving your hand to ramp up your score and that built-in micro USB charging port felt like the genius moment from Nike until it stopped working and you had to get replacement after replacement. While the original Jawbone UP was quietly snaring tech enthusiasts embracing a new era of the quantified self, Nike was putting a globally recognisable face on the movement. Rather than Jawbones identikit fitness models, the FuelBand had LeBron James in commercials and Serena Williams wearing the product on court. That did more to raise the profile of fitness trackers than any of the others combined. Beyond the hype, the Nike FuelBand was a solid, well-conceived first generation product, while the underpinning concept of Nike Fuel a brand new currency for the exercise tracking helped to change the game for the better. In the early days, trackers were essentially pedometers on a rubber band. If you werent stepping it, you werent getting credit for it (at least without inputting the data yourself). The FuelBand allowed you to accrue fuel for movement as well as steps. Other activities like yoga, weightlifting, cycling and cross training too could be quickly calibrated, albeit with varying degrees of success. Heck, even if you were rolling out pastry, or curling your bicep to facilitate the secure transportation of beer into your mouth, you were racking up the Nike Fuel. Essential reading: Fitbit Blaze review Coloured LED lights represented progress towards simple, incentive-based targets without the need to mess with or open up your iPhone app. Need to complete your goal a few minutes before bed Just take the dog for a walk or do a few sit-ups. Fuelband App Plus The AdditionIt wasnt perfect, but the FuelBand seemed primed for greatness, with just a little tinkering plus the addition of some new features and the then-missing support for Android. It wasnt fully waterproofed, thus remaining useless to swimmers, but it did have additional social features. Yay However, while Nike was treading water, the competition was powering forward. By the time a FuelBand app for Android arrived in July 2014 (two and a half years late), the writing was already on the wall. Nike was jumping off the bandwagon it helped set in motion, making the belated Android support nothing more than a token gesture. Nike launched its running and training apps for Android, so why did it dally for so long on the FuelBand Was it through some sense of loyalty to Apple, its long-time partner When techs capo dei capi Tim Cook who incidentally sits on Nikes board was flashing around his personal FuelBand back in 2012 everything looked rosy. I mean, when does that ever happen In late 2014, it was actually rumoured that Nike was heavily involved in the creation of a new wearable from Apple.
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