Nike’s attempt to roll NikeFuel as a platform play is smart but doomed

In some ways, it’s no surprise that Nike is refocusing away from fitness/wearable hardware to software. Despite the Nike+ brand, the FuelBand tracking bracelet (below) hasn’t found a strong position in the market, while the Nike+ TomTom GPS running watch - which I’ve happily used over the past 2 years - is too expensive compared to the competition.

According to Cnet, the company's decision sees around 70 staff of the 200-strong Nike Digital Sport being laid-off. Interestingly, though, Nike says it will keep supporting and selling the current FuelBand SE, as well as improving its app.

Given the relative small savings the company will be making, and the short/medium-term decision to remain in the market, this clearly is more a strategic than a ‘religious’ move. Fitness hardware will remain a main driver in the wearable category, but Nike has understood that it doesn’t really get hardware innovation.

Instead, it’s hoping thirdparty companies will adopt the NikeFuel training metric; something it’s supporting with its Fuel Lab testing space.

Of course, with the likes of Apple (a big Nike support in iOS) and Google, not to mention every phone maker, currently looking to get into wearables, getting out of the hardware market enables Nike to get its brand into the hardware of multiple vendors.

In that sense, it is a getting out of a highly competitive market in which it is failing in the hope of making more revenue and/or brand kudos with a co-operative platform play.

Sadly, then, the bigger issue for Nike is the entire NikeFuel concept - its proprietary measurement of training - which is entirely vacuous.

Can Google oust Tizen as the OS for wearables?

While it makes complete sense for Google to say it wants to position Android as the OS for wearables (as quoted at SXSWi), it's also worth pointing out that Samsung's just switched from Android to Tizen for its new Gear 2 smartwatches.

That decision was apparently made in terms of battery life and performance considerations.

Of course, given its work with Google Glass and its rumoured Nexus smartwatch with LG, Google will have plenty of skin in the game. Thing is, though, performance and battery life are pretty big considerations in the wearable space, and if Samsung thinks Android doesn't currently cut the mustard, looks like it has some ways to shrink. 

Nintendo announces health platform - skipping wearables, going straight to the smart toilet

While the rest of the world is going wearable-computing-crazy, game maker Nintendo is kicking against the pricks.

It's currently losing money, thanks to the failure of its Wii-U console and its decision not to make games for phones.

So CEO Satoru Iwata is trying to encourage investors to stick with the company by revealing a new initiative - its Quality of Life program.

Iwata hasn't proved any specifics, only to say that over the next 10 years, Nintendo is looking to build a preventative health platform that "improves people’s QOL in enjoyable ways".

"When we talk about 'health,' it often involves measuring something and showing the results, but if we add an application to something, maybe this application would encourage people to continue in an enjoyable way, and we feel that we can use our strengths in this area," he said.

“As those who are already suffering from illness can seek medical care, our new business domain would be providing preventive measures which would require us to enable people to monitor their health and offer them appropriate propositions."

Of course, we're already seeing this with the rise of The Quantifiable Self and wearable computing such as FitBit, Jawbone, Nike+ etc.

But as Iwata makes clear, Nintendo isn't planning to use mobile technology or wearable technology. It's looking to leapfrog these to non-wearable technology, whatever that is.

"I am not planning to announce any specific themes today, but to give you a hint, 'non-wearable' does not necessarily mean it is something that will be used in the living room," Iwata says.

Reading between the lines, then, if Nintendo isn't planning to use phones or wearable computing, it must be looking for sensors that will be more widely integrated into general life, or in this case, through the home.

Perhaps this is currently best seen in devices such as smart scales, but it's not beyond the bounds of possibilities that Nintendo is planning a health-focused home platform that could connect console peripherals such as the Wii Balance Boards with thirdparty devices such as smart scales, smart fridges, smart beds or even smart toilets.

Yeah, you heard it here first. The Nintendo Toilet... Pooping with purpose. After all, Mario is a plumber.