This phone has HRM

Wonder what is in store for us running addicts in a few months? Well, apparently, a lot, and these include a host of competitors to the Nike + system and some upgrades to your Nike + iPod kits. Take a look at what is almost out of the market…

Sarah Skidmore Reports: PORTLAND, Ore. – Adidas and Samsung have teamed up for a new twist in training — a mobile phone that can coach. The device directs and motivates users during workouts by combining a mobile phone, heart rate monitor, stride sensor, and the voice of an electronic “personal coach.”
MiCoach hits retail stores this month and will roll out in the United States in 2009. It will cost $304 to $608 in Europe, depending on the service plan users select. U.S. pricing has not been set.
“This is the most advanced coaching system that is out there,” said Andrea Corso, spokeswoman for Portland-based Adidas U.S.
The new Adidas-Samsung collaboration is the latest of several tech-sport partnerships. Most comparable is Nike+, a wireless system that allows Nike running shoes embedded with a sensor to communicate with Apple’s iPod Nano. An update this week allows users to plug their iPods into gym equipment and track their training there as well.
MiCoach is a bit more expansive because it includes a mobile phone and a camera. It also helps runners set goals and then reach them by monitoring their heart rates and telling them when to slow down or speed up to meet a goal for distance, fitness or calorie burn.
“This about getting to the next level, whether that is running a mile or running a marathon,” Corso said.
Adidas will offer equipment and clothing for runners to attach miCoach and the heart monitor to themselves. The sensor can be attached to any shoe.
Considering this new developments, shouldn’t Nike, at least, do over some of their more complicated fixes to the Nike+ system so that it would be a little more “user-friendly” for us aging runners, particularly since I am not aware what the rest of those buttons do in their watches, iPod kits and other thingamajigs.
I’d rather have it simple. Isn’t that what running should be?