4. Smart Product Issues

(Describe issues raised by the smart products from either Nike or Under Armour)

130 Part One Organizations, Management, and the Networked Enterprise INTERACTIVE SESSION: TECHNOLOGY Smart Products, Smart Companies If you don't use a smart product yet, you soon will. access all their data --Induding lifetime Neue Your shoes, your dothing your watch, your water points accumulated from all their Nike+ devices bottle, and even your toothbrush are being rede Nike is developing other fitness technology prod signed to incorporate sensors and matering devices ucts to integrate with Nike+. The more people mes connected to the Internet so that their performance sure their activity with Nike Fuel the more they are can be monitored and analyzed locked in to the Nike ecosystem and the harder it What difference does that make? Take Nike will be to switch to other companies products. Nice's the world's biggest sports footwear and apparel Integration of information and technology into its company. Nike has created a series of information products eps people coming back to Nike's own technology-based products and an ecosystem of website and apps gadgets and services built around measurable per Nice believes technology is revolutionising des rela sonal improvement through exercise. The Nike tionship with consumers, turning it into a company ecosystem links Nike's corporate computer system that provides services as well as products in the past to smart devices such as the Nike SportWatch when you bought a product, that was the end of the GPS, the Nike+ FuelBand, and the Nike Running relationship with the company. Now, the purchase App on Apple and Android mobile devices. This of any Nike product has become the beginning of enables Nike to analyze individual performance the company's relationship with the consumer. The and activity data collected by the devices to help deeper the relationship, the more consumers will users train and work out more effectively. It also embrace and stay loyal to the Nike brand adds value to Nike products and a reason to stay Under Armour, noted for performance clothing with the brand using technologically advanced material is mak The Nike SportWatch GPS keep track of your ing its products smarter as well. The company has location, pace, distance, laps, calories burned, and spent $710 million to scoop up mobile apps such (with the Polar Wearlink+) heart rate. The Nike+ as MyFitnessPal MapMyFitness, and Endomondo, Running App tracks your route, distance, pace, calo which enable it to tap into the world's largest dige ries burned, and time using your phone or another tal health and fitness community. Under Armour Nike partnered device, giving you audio feedback can generate revenue from in-app ads, including as you run. The Nike+ FuelBand activity tracker is ads from other companies and purchases from app worn on the wrist and used with an Apple iPhone or es referred to its products. The platform del Pad. The FuelBand enables wearers to track their cers unprecedented depth of information and insight physical activity, steps taken daily, and amount of about fitness and health-oriented consumen, creat calories burned. The information it collects is inte ing numerous opportunities for Under Armour and grated into the Nike+ online community and phone other brands to engage with potential and existing application, allowing wearers to set their own fitness customers. For example, MapMyFitness collects data goals, monitor their progress on the device LED dis about a user's name, e-mail address, birth date, loca play, and compare themselves to others within the tion, performance, and profile if the user connects to Nike community the app using social media. Under Armour does not Nike's proprietary software turns all tracked move sell identifiable personal data about individuals to ment from Nile's smart devices into Nike Fuel points, third parties but does provide advertisers with aggre which can show achievements, can be shared with gate information about app user. Under Armour friends, or can be used to engage others in competi is hoping that daily use of its smartphone apps will tion. Nike Fuel is Nike's universal way for measur build stronger ties to customers that will lead to ing movement for all kinds of activities using a stronger sales of its own apparel footwear and other metric that enables comparisons-no matter what athletic gear height, isht, gender, or activity-to past perfor Under your has teamed up with e-commerce mance, et person, or a daily average (which retailer Zato send users a pop-up notification Nike defines as 2,000 Fuel points.) Users of multiple when their sneakers need replacement, based on Nike devices can visit the nikeplus.com site to workout data logged in MapMyFitness apps. Under Chapter 3 Information Systems, Organizations, and Strategy 131 Armour sees clothes themselves eventually becom- Gatorade began testing the smart-cap bottle with ing the means to track movement and biorhythms. Brazil's national soccer team ahead of the 2014 World Under Armour developed its own smart footwear Cup and is testing a new version with the Boston called UA SpeedForm Gemini 2 Record Equipped, Celtics basketball team and FC Barcelona soccer which tracks a runner's time and date, duration, dis- squad. In the field-tested prototypes, flashing lights tance, and splits without the need for other devices. tell players when they need to hydrate. Users can The company also partnered with HTC to develop UA customize the smart caps with their name, team Health Box, a $400 red box that includes a Wi-Fiscale logo, and number (for measuring weight and body fat), a heart rate According to Xavi Cortadellas, Gatorade senior chest strap and removable sensor, and a shower-proof director of global innovation and design, personal- dimpled fitness band to track workouts and sleep. ized nutrition and integrating technology in sports The data these devices collect are stored on an Under are the next frontier of performance. Gatorade's Armor Record app on an iPhone or Android phone. parent company, PepsiCo, is actively attempting to Gatorade, with a 78 percent share of the $7.21 bil- expand into areas outside of sugary sodas, and such lion sports-drinks market, is developing a microchip- technology-enabled products provide opportunities. fitted "smart cap" bottle that communicates digitally Sree Kate Taylor, "Gatorade Is Developing a 'Smart Cap That with a bandage-like sweat patch to provide athletes Keep Track of Hydration, Business Insider, March 21, 2016, Mike and fitness buffs constant updates on how much Esterl Gatorade Sets Its Sights on Digital Fitness Wall Street Jour they should drink. According to Gatorado, individual nal, March 10, 2016, Edward C. Baig. Under Armour and HTC Team Up on Connected Fitness, USA Today, January 5, 2016; hydration needs differ, with sweat loss ranging from www.underarmour.com, accessed April 20, 2016, www.nike.com, half a liter to more than two liters per hour of exer accessed April 19, 2016 John Kell, Why Under Armour is Making cise. The company is planning to launch as many as a Costly Beton Connected Pines Fortune, April 21, 2016, and Jared Lindon, "The Rise and Fall of Wearable Fitness Tracker a dozen different formulas for electrolytes and carbo The Globe and Mall, January 5, 2015 hydrates in small pods that snap on to bottles