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Curious Fitness Product at the Microsoft Store November 5, 2009

Posted by Kelly Brady in : Gadgets and Gizmos, Technology for aging , 2comments

While visiting the new Microsoft Store in Scottsdale, Arizona, I was curious to see what accessories made the shelves, thinking Microsoft carefully selected products for the limited space available. A device called a ‘Fitbit’ caught my eye; at first I thought it was a Bluetooth headset. Then I noticed the words “Wireless Personal Trainer”. 

What is the FitBit Wireless Personal Trainer?

fitbit

The Fitbit is a small wearable pedometer/accelerometer that records how many steps you take in a day. The unit can even be worn on an included wristband while you sleep to log how effectively and how long you sleep. It wirelessly sync’s itself to your PC and the Internet every 15 minutes using the included USB charger/wireless receiver. Battery charge is excellent – I have been wearing it daily for two weeks and still have 35% charge left. 

Easy to use and setup

I’m not going to provide a complete product review here – there are several others you can read such as one on engadget (although I don’t agree with some of the author’s conclusions).   However, I think that this is a really nice product that is very easy to use and learn.  You can push a button on the front of the device to see how many steps, miles or calories burned, as well as a graphical effort scale. You can also hold this button down to activate and deactivate the nighttime “record my sleep patterns” mode. The unit automatically resets the counter at midnight so there is virtually no user-required management of the unit – just wear it! It actually comes with almost no instructions – see the following photo for the instructions included in the package:

Fitbit's Instruction Manual

Fitbit's Instruction Manual

To be fair, there is a full and detailed user’s guide on the Fitbit website. 

The are no activation fees or monthly charges to upload data and access the website. The website is very simple to use and actually has a lot of features including food logging, calorie tracking etc:

fitbitsite

 

FitBit, Sportbrain and Venture Capital

I think it is significant that Fitbit made it into the Microsoft Store; they are not the first company to market a digital, computer & internet linked fitness device built around a pedometer function. Both Fitbit and several similar products have attracted venture capital recently and years ago. Has the Wii and Wii Fit created a new frontier of health & fitness technology that can attract venture capital even in this market?  In 2004/2005 I was a member of the Center for Aging Services Technology (CAST) Commission, headed by Eric Dishman, a senior researcher at Intel Labs. Erik was studying technology applications for Alzheimer’s, and showed up for a meeting wearing his “Sportbrain” activity monitor/pedometer. He often referred to in during presentations as a simple example of how technology can impact health in a non-invasive, even positive ways.  Erik would illustrate that a product like Sportbrain, which appeals to all ages (particularly the young, active culture) could get funding, but that products designed for aging & seniors could not – there was a stigma to aging even though the market for these products was rapidly increasing due to the baby boomer retirement wave.

I decided then not to buy a Sportbrain. They charged a monthly fee and the company had recently come out of bankruptcy.  Even now, Sportbrain products are hard to find and the website and product line are confusing. Visiting their website you’ll have trouble determining what they sell, which model to buy, what it does, and how to use it. Their product has not evolved, and still does not sync wirelessly.

Sportbrain and Fitbit clearly approach their market differently. Sportbrain as a company seems to have stagnated. They certainly are not showing up in high-profile places like the Microsoft Store, Sports Authority, Dick’s Sports etc. Unlike Sportbrain, Fitbit comes across with a simple and clean appearance for their product and website. They invite direct communication with staff via forums, have a Flickr photostream, a blog and of course, they Tweet. There probably is a clever name for these new era entrepreneurial startups that embrace social media, open their doors and are not afraid to share the behind-the-scenes activity.

Now I need to go take a walk…Fitbit tells me I’ve only reached 7% of my goal of 10,000 steps today…

First Impressions of First Microsoft Store October 31, 2009

Posted by Kelly Brady in : Retail , 1 comment so far
Microsoft NOW OPEN banner in the food court at Fashion Square Mall Microsoft banner in the food court at Fashion Square Mall

Microsoft opened their first retail store yesterday, in the largest mall in Arizona, in the 12th largest metropolitan area in the US. Today I visited the store at Fashion Square Mall in Scottsdale, AZ. In a word: NICE. The staff seemed happy, excited and falling all over themselves to be helpful. The staff told me that sale’s yesterday were heavy; laptops, Windows 7 and a little of everything was selling briskly.

 
The store is visually stunning, with brilliant large screen displays running end-to-end down both sides of the entire store. A giant 109″ touch screen TV on the rear wall in the “Theater” area was displaying Microsoft Worldwide Telescope, an interactive celestial viewer that receives imagery from real telescopes worldwide. A glimpse into the store immediately conjures up images of your last visit to an Apple Store. Clearly, Apple has created the current design pattern for upscale, user-centric computer retailing. But I think Microsoft has clearly iterated the concept and tailored it to Windows PC users.
Inside the Microsoft Store Inside the Microsoft Store
Everything in the store is for sale: PC’s, software, Xbox, monitors, Zune & even Microsoft Surface units (more on that in a moment). PC’s brands for sale included HP, Dell, Alienware (now part of Dell), Toshiba and Lenovo. There were even a few Acer models.  Like the Apple Store there was a modest selection of peripherals, laptop bags, external drives, Bluetooth headsets and Microsoft mice – but not the full product line. I was pleased to see a number of unusual and creative product offerings and accessories; things I would not expect to find. And you can even buy some things that are NOT in the store….
 
Software on Demand
In the rear of the store, with little fanfare or signage sits an unimposing pedestal containing a fairly simple touchscreen kiosk. Enter a software title, and if available, you can purchase it and the disk is burned and manual printed while-you-wait. Common in Europe, this may be the first major retail outlet to offer such a service in the U.S. Currently there are about 300 Microsoft and non-Microsoft titles available, with plans to increase that number to 3,000.
 
Microsoft Answers Bar Microsoft Answers Bar
Answers
Comparable to Apple’s Genius Bar is the Microsoft Answers desk, centered deep in the store near the back. Here is how it works: At no charge, you can sign up for a 15 minute consultation with a Microsoft “Technical Advisor”. They can answer questions about your PC, Windows, Xbox and Zune, perform diagnostics and generally help you out. If 15 minutes isn’t enough, you can purchase flat-rate “Premium” support for $49 or $99 depending on the service needed.
 
Microsoft Store Services
In addition to Answers, Microsoft offers a number of other services, conveniently featured in a small booklet you can take. These services include:
Making A Purchase
There are no cash registers or check-out lines in the store. Some of the employees carry small portable registers and can ring up your sale anywhere in the store. Interestingly, these point of sale units are running Microsoft Dynamics software (Microsoft’s line of enterprise business CRM, ERP & POS solutions).  It is good to see that they are running the store with their own enterprise back office software. Of course, it was so busy in the store that I had to wait about 5 minutes to make my purchase while the staff ran around looking for an employee with an available terminal.
Microsoft Dynamics P.O.S. terminal Microsoft Dynamics P.O.S. terminal
There has been a lot of attention to detail, and focus on the customer shopping and purchasing experience. I wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft won a design aware for the shopping bag, a heavy laminated canvas bag with cloth handles and a button closure:
Microsoft Luxury Shopping Bag Microsoft Luxury Shopping Bag
 
Microsoft Surface
To me this is by far the most interesting, beautiful and expensive thing in the Microsoft Store. Surface is “multi-user, multi-touch” experience…similar to have an iPhone or iTouch, but the size of a coffee table. I’ve been watching the development of Microsoft Surface for several years, but have never gotten to play with it. There are 3 or 4 of these units in the store, with benches around them to allow you to sit and play.  I don’t know how to briefly describe it – you have to play with it yourself. The cool factor is WAY out there. The first commercial units sold can be found in Disney’s Tomorrowland exhibit, the Hard Rock Cafe and Rio iBar in Vegas and a few Sheraton hotel lobbies. The unit was featured on MSNBC during election coverage. The surface shimmers like a pool of water that reacts to your touch. Besides some of the games that run on it, working with photos is amazing. You physically size and organize them using your hands & fingers, sliding them around on an intelligent desktop. Did you see the Tom Cruise movie Minority Report? Surface is about as close as you can get to the hand-gesture system used in the movie to organize computer data & images.
 
Infinite Possibilities
 ”Possibilities” is one of my favorite words and concepts. At the front of the store, on the right wall is an eye-catching branding poster with a really cool tagline that deftly articulates Microsoft’s Windows positioning:
Infinite Possibilities Infinite Possibilities
I think this is going to be a win-win for Microsoft and users. Windows users have needed access to a consistent (and free/low cost) support channel for Windows PC’s, and may prefer this buying experience to the mass-market stores like Best Buy.