Congrats, there is another player in the market. Nike+ was only the entry into the market, the FuelBand is the full fledged product. It has the standard 3 axis accelerometer built in but also has other unique features. Gizmodo states it uses “Oxygen Kinetics” which is:
The Fuelband doesn’t count steps. It doesn’t tick off miles. What’s unique about Nike+ Fuelband is that it uses “oxygen kinetics” to figure out the amount of oxygen you’re using and then translates that input/output into a “universal currency” named Nikefuel. Everyone, whether you’re a basketball player or a football player or a life player or a PC game player, is measured with Nikefuel. The more active things you do in a day means the more Nikefuel you earn in a day. Nike says that they’ve correlated oxygen intake with specific fitness activities and then created a way to translate it to Nikefuel. Basically, it’s a smart and Nike-branded algorithm that brings everyone onto the same unit of measurement.
BAM, thats their secret sauce which makes it more competitive than others while making their system easy to use. Making your own metric, if you are a large company, is always the right move. The problem is getting other companies to adopt it. Other implications is easier integration for award based incentive companies, if they choose to do so.
It also connects via USB but also has Bluetooth to connect to cell phones and portable across to Nike+.
A tad pricer than other competitors, it goes for 149.00
The people at Gizmodo have actually tried it, this is their response.
And most importantly, Nike’s FuelBand website.
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