Apple and Nike just do it

Nike has announced a collaboration with Apple Computer known as Nike+ to produce an integrated system that transmits information from their running shoes to the iPod.

A small sensor fits inside one of the shoes, and with each step you take, information is sent to a special transmitter that connects to the dock port on an iPod Nano. The iPod can store that information for analysis on your Macintosh, with, if the promotional literature is anything to go by, new Apple software that displays things like performance graphs. Throughout your run, the iPod can also deliver voice messages of various kinds, telling the user how far the they have to go, or how long they have been running for.

An additional aspect of the package is Nike clothing designed specifically for the iPod Nano, featuring, for example, pockets into which the iPod can be stored while still giving the user access to the iPod’s all-important buttons.

http://www.nike.com/nikeplus

The back-story to all this is rather interesting. Nike were apparently in talks with electronics company Philips to do a similar thing, but these negotiations broke down, and Apple came forward. On the surface at least, Apple and Nike don’t seem to have much in common. But think a little harder, and it actually makes a lot more sense. Both are world-famous brands, and among that very elite group of companies that have logos that are instantly recognisable even by those with little interest in theiir actual products.

The deal also tells us something about the direction that Apple is going in. The iPod is clearly a major vehicle for propelling the Apple brand even if it doesn’t do much to expand the Macintosh user base. Apple is clearly lining itself up as more than a computer manufacturer but as a consumer electronics company as well.

Whether or not Apple will end up making shavers and toasters instead of computers hardly matters, what Apple are doing (so far successfully) is position themselves in that difficult middle market that Sony have largely held for themselves. Other computer companies that have tried to inch themselves into the “digital lifestyle” end of the consumer electricals market have included Gateway and Dell, and neither with very great success.

For Mac users, even ones who don’t buy expensive tennis shoes, the Nike-Apple deal is a good sign of things to come. The challenge for Apple will be to ensure that the iPod and the whole digital lifestyle theme complements and enhances the Mac OS rather than siphons away talent and investment. At the same time, Apple must handle these sorts of collaborations with care and adopt them only selectively. Part of the allure of the Macintosh is that it is a premium, professional brand, and the wrong collaborations could easily diminish that impression. A Nike deal is fine, but would a Disney one work so well?