Category: Technology News

Nike’s CEO says the company still has future plans for wearables even though it discontinued its FuelBand.

While Nike has abandoned its fitness tracking bracelet, Mark Parker, the company’s chief executive, hinted that it may be collaborating with Apple on future wearable tech and indicated that the device would likely be more integrated and less obvious than current wearables on the market.

The future wearable product could be more practical and more “stealth”.

“You can go from the very geeky kind of wearables today – we’ve all seen some of those – to what I think you’ll see in the future, things that are more stealth, more integrated, more stylish and more functional, yes,” said Parker in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

Although Parker was not clear on what type of technology the company may be developing, it does seem that he could be hinting that they are not sticking to the typical wristband idea that is common among the majority of fitness trackers. Instead, their wearable idea may lead to the creation of a product that is equipped with smarter and smaller sensors that could be integrated into fashion accessories or clothing, for example.

A future wearable tech product collaboration may be new for Nike and Apple but the companies have previously worked together.

Back in 2006, the companies partnered for the Nike+running sensor range, which wirelessly connected to Apple’s iPod. In fact, Parker personally worked with Steve Jobs, Apple’s founder. Meanwhile, Tim Cook, Apple’s current CEO, serves on Nike’s board of directors. Furthermore, after Nike shut down its Fuelband division, many people who were part of this division, moved to Apple to work on the Apple Watch.

Parker states that “Technologically we can do things together that we couldn’t do independently.” He added that part of the company’s plan is to expand the entire “digital frontier” in regard to wearables and grow from tens of millions of Nike users to hundreds of millions.

It is unknown what type of wearable tech will be produced from the hinted Nike and Apple partnership. That being said, beyond potential future wearable projects, it is probable that a Nike+ app will be made available for the Apple Watch and that it will likely integrate with the electronic giant’s new Health app.

It is clear that the adoption of this type of smartphone based transaction still has a long way to go.

A recently released study has now revealed that it is Europe that currently holds the top spot for the adoption of mobile payments, while at the same time, North America appears to be lagging behind the rest of the world in this same category.

This study was conducted during the period up to the point in which Apple Pay was launched in the U.S.

This study was conducted by a payment technology company based in Amsterdam called Ayden. The report on the research was included in its Q3 Mobile Payments Index. The data that was considered within this report runs up to the point at which Apple Pay rolled out in the United States. This could mean that from that point forward, the situation may change if it does turn out that the estimated 10 million Americans who have devices compatible with that service decide to actually use it.

Some believe that the awareness of mobile payments, alone, will start to improve its use in North America.

According to the report, mobile devices made up 23.3 percent of all of the online payments that were completed within the three month span that finished on September 30. This represents a growth in the worldwide use of these transactions of a sizeable 21.4 percent when compared to the quarter beforehand, which closed at the end of June. Among all of the various regions that were considered within this report, Europe was at the very top of the adoption of this technology.

Smartphone payments in Europe made up 24 percent of all of the mobile based transactions in the world. Asia came in second by contributing 17 percent of those transactions. That said, it was Asia that was seen as the most rapidly growing in terms of adoption and use of these digital payments. Its year over year growth rate was recorded to be 58 percent, said the report.

North America was at the other end of the scale. It sat at 16.7 percent of the total mobile payments around the world, and remained pretty much unchanged in that figure when compared to the previous quarter.