Last week I found out that Nike fired a good part of the engineers who were developing the famous FuelBand bracelets used by millions of people around the globe in fitness sessions. This announcement immediately gave rise to speculations according to which the employees fired by Nike could enter the team Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), which develops iWatch, while Nike could collaborate with Apple for the same purpose. Without directly confirming a partnership, the CEO Nike he stated in an interview granted to CNBC that his company is collaborating with Apple at the moment and that he is very excited about how the relationship between the two companies will evolve.
Parker: [Y]ou're going to continue to see us commit to this area, to focus on expanding the reach. Today, we have about 30 million FuelBand users. We're hoping to push that to over 100 million. We have partners that we work with...obviously the most visible partner we have is Apple. We've been working with them for a long time. And we're excited about where that relationship will go forward.
CNBC's Sara Eisen: Well, can you give us a hint? Are we going to expect some sort of collaborative device coming out? Nike and Apple?
Parker: I can't really say that. There's been a lot of speculation, which I understand. I will just say the relationship between Nike and Apple will continue. And I am personally, as we all are at Nike, very excited about what's to come.
The statement was made to a question that asked Parker to confirm or deny the fact that Apple and Nike will develop a fitness product together and I think his answer is as clear as possible. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, is a member of Nike's board of directors, so a collaboration between the two companies is as possible and logical at the same time, Apple needing a partner with experience in the field of fitness product development.
Whether or not this possible collaboration will bring us an iWatch we will find out in the coming months, but I think that interesting things await us this year.
