By now we've all heard about the new nike+ipod. Brilliant idea, of course.

The question that interests me now is: How will Nike's competitors react? (How Apple's competitors will react is, of course, a much less intesresting question—and that's coming from a girl who still uses a 128 MB (plus a 256 MB card) SonicBlue Rio S50 despite the fact that it doesn't work with her shiny new iMac and she has to pull out the old, curmudgeonly PC laptop to change the music on it.)

I mean, if I was, say, Reebok, I think I'd start designing my shoes with a mysterious cavity under the insole for the purposes of holding whatever my customers might see fit. They could put candy in it, car keys, money, or whatever, but it would just *happen* to be the right size to hold a nike+ipod transmitter. I probably wouldn't even bother trying to pair up with an Apple competitor. I'd just make my shoes ipod-compatible—effectively undermining Nike's claim to Apple's loyal users—and let people do as they will.

By the same token, of course, Apple's competitors would do well to put out shoe sensors (conveniently sized like the nike+ipod sensor, or course) that communicate with their own mp3 players. Their existing customers will most likely pick them up, but we all know their base simply can't match Apple's.

All I'm saying here is that it'll be bad news for consumers indeed if the manufacturers of mp3 players and sneaker companies start pairing up and producing devices that aren't inter-compatible and force runners to choose between their favorite sneakers and their mp3 player of choice (or, worse, of prior ownership). Please guys, don't make people duplicate purchases to make their shoes work with their music.