Once again, Apple has raised the bar with its Nike partnership. A coin-sized transponder that you stick inside specially-designed Nike sneakers sends exercise information to your iPod in realtime. It's a clever gagdet because it makes both Nike sneakers and the iPod more valuable (to some people) than either product individually. iPod watchers were initially in a frenzy because they thought the device used Bluetooth (a wireless protocol) to communicate, suggesting that Bluetooth wireless headphones might soon work with iPods. But Apple's Web site indicates a proprietary protocol is used.
That leads to even more speculation. A tiny wireless transceiver plugs into the bottom of the iPod--can this be used with other devices? Since it is an Apple protocol, any other company that wants to build an iPod enabled device has to license it through Apple. Apple may be onto something really big. I have long maintained that the iPod is a new computing platform, not just a neat music player. We are likely to see more kinds of gadgets that work with the iPod, using the iPod's screen, memory, and computing power to do things that would be too expensive or too difficult to do as a standalone device. Nike could never build this kind of system into a sneaker, but with so many runners carrying iPods, it makes perfect sense.
Apple continues to change the whole IT paradigm.