In May of 2006, Apple teamed up with Nike to announce a running tracker for use with the iPod nano. To put this moment in perspective, Apple had just opened its now-iconic flagship Fifth Avenue store days earlier. Usain Bolt shook in his golden Puma shoes as the world was encouraged to get off its collective behind and run with the help of their music players. Apple and Nike kept the momentum in 2009 when Apple announced its iPhone 3GS with built-in Nike+ support, and again in 2010 with the Nike+ GPS app, which eliminated the need for its proprietary shoe sensor. 2012 brought NikeFuel, a proprietary point system that tracks your activity; it's like a calorie, but with more dancing cartoon characters. Nike ruled the running roost and, for a time, it was good. But with all its success, Nike’s cumbersome Web interface for Nike+ was left to languish, and its competitors caught up. Developers took advantage of the iPhone’s GPS capabilities and created a whole host of outdoor running apps, attempting to topple the king that was Nike+.
Finally, in June of this year, Nike redesigned its entire Nike+ offering. Since we have a small (but growing) contingency of runners at Ars, we wanted to see how Nike's updated Nike+ Running app stacked up against some of the competition.
Strava Run
Strava looks fantastic. The simple Web interface is accompanied by an even lovelier mobile UI for iOS and Android devices. Nike+ has its bells and whistles that encourage the average Joe to get off their couch, but Strava's clean interface seems to be more appealing to those who already wake up at 5am and just want a no-nonsense analysis of their performance. In addition to tracking your data, it allows you to plug in your latest endeavor manually, along with the ability to track your routes via GPS. Integration with various Garmin devices is also available, should you not want you take your iPhone along for your trek. But not everything is roses: Strava’s social features are pretty shallow. While you can add friends, share runs with the requisite social networks, join clubs, and compare stats down to the section of road, there’s no way to directly challenge a buddy in a race or achieve a goal together—a much-loved feature in Nike+. Strava offers its own “Strava Challenges," which are running or cycling goals that encourage certain aspects of training such as climbing a certain number of feet or beating your personal best. Depending on your locale, however, their challenges can be impossible to complete and therefore may end up being useless to you.