But, let’s consider the Nike+ and Apple situation for a moment. These two major companies have invested a lot of money on their partnership. Neither is going to be happy with a software only solution, even though it may be the right thing for the consumer. I expect the longer term solution for a third party developer would be to work together with both companies.

In the short term, you must think about the limits Apple may put on developers who want to stay on their friendly side.

Apple’s policy is NO ONE may run an application on the iPhone in the background. And there are no exceptions. If one proved an order of magnitude improvement in efficiency by running the the background instead of the foreground, it wouldn’t make a difference. But even so, the application is far more power efficient and accurate than any other platform.

Nokia has their N series (currently outside US, but we’ll see what this year brings) which boasts their Activity Monitor. It’s fairly spiffy, runs only in the foreground and kills the battery in a hurry.

Then there are the speculations about what LG, Android and others will be doing soon.

Accelerometers and their applications have barely begun to show their usefulness. I am looking forward to this new era in anticipation. I’ve met some really smart people doing amazing things with accelerometers over the past couple of years. It’s about time for many of them to start releasing their products and services.

Even if nobody makes what you’re proposing, I’d still just like an iphone formatted running log to enter my runs, like what Buxfer does with money.