Filed under: Humor, Software, Odds and ends, Developer, iPhone, App Store
iPhone to run Boston Marathon
TUAW regulars probably remember our post about a reader in Tokyo who strapped an iPhone to his hat and used Qik to livestream the Tokyo Marathon. Well, now we're about to see an iPhone run the Boston Marathon.It's a very large iPhone with a developer inside! RunKeeper developer Jason Jacobs has battled plantar fascitis and a short training season (three weeks) to hopefully carry off this great marketing scheme on Marathon Monday. He's wearing a lightweight iPhone suit made of black lycra with a rope frame. What's on the screen of the iPhone? RunKeeper, of course!
The staff at Fitness Keeper worked with a team of students from Professor Dave Gerzof's social media class at Emerson College to come up with a marketing strategy that would give their popular exercise tracking app an extra push in the App Store. On Monday, we'll see how well an iPhone can run the Boston Marathon.
There's more of the story as well as video at http://www.runkeeper.com/marathon. Good luck, Jason!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Alex said 4:35PM on 4-18-2009
Uh, plantar fascitis isn't something you can just fix. He better have some damn good inserts if he plans to finish this thing.
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loup407 said 4:44PM on 4-18-2009
Three weeks training? Hopefully he won't be giving a live demonstration of a 3G iPhone's battery life cycle. He had to have qualified, so maybe he's in better shape than the article infers. Good luck!
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FightTheFuture said 4:51PM on 4-18-2009
the weather forecast for boston on monday is said to be 41/50º! i get too warm wearing just shorts and a tshirt in 50º weather. this guy is going to burn up!
i'm crossing my fingers that they get nike+ hardware into the next iPhone.
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Luis Menendez said 7:52PM on 4-18-2009
Let's hope there's good coverage in that area!
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ack154 said 9:07PM on 4-18-2009
Ya, I'd say that's a good marketing idea.
"Let's have someone dress up as an iPhone to run the marathon. No one will care about it in the race but there are definitely going to be stories about it on the internets! THAT will be our marketing!"
See, you don't need to actually have a good idea to get free marketing... just something dumb, strange, or out of the ordinary... then you get the marketing and traffic from stories ABOUT your idea. Not the actual idea.
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seth said 10:27PM on 4-18-2009
Neat...the start/finish line is only 2 blocks from the apple store!
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iphonerulez said 12:32AM on 4-19-2009
Gee, I sure hope it comes in first place or at least not dead last. Of course, with all that wind resistance if he's running into a headwind, he's a goner. May the wind be always at his back.
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Shuki Haiminis said 7:53AM on 4-19-2009
We will be cheering Jason on from Boylston St. Way to go!
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tygers134 said 4:29PM on 4-19-2009
Great marketing campaign. Although I really don't think the iPhone needs another marketing campaign since it is such a great product everyone is talkign about it online.
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Elizabeth DiRusso said 3:44PM on 4-19-2009
my roommates are in that class
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Drupa said 11:18PM on 4-19-2009
Pretty darn "alternative lifestyle" if you ask me.
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Willy said 7:23AM on 4-22-2009
I passed this guy on the course and saw him at the finish line. I told him I read about him at TUAW!
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