“There will be a new player in Major League Baseball dugouts this season: the iPad,” Nathan Olivarez-Giles reports for The Wall Street Journal. “Apple Inc. and MLB signed a multi-year agreement to equip every team with iPad Pro tablets to help coaching staffs make better use of data.”
“Teams will be able sift through performance stats from current and past seasons, weigh potential pitcher-hitter matchups, look at “spray charts” showing where a player is likely to hit a ball, even cue up videos of plays from previous games,” Olivarez-Giles reports. “‘We’re not just replacing binders with tablets, we’re actually helping them do things that weren’t possible before,’ said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of marketing.”
“The league will issue team managers and coaches Apple’s 12.9-inch iPad Pros fitted with rugged cases displaying the league’s logo. The software centerpiece is a custom app called MLB Dugout, built by MLB’s New York-based Advanced Media division, with assistance from Apple,” Olivarez-Giles reports. “Apple and MLB declined to disclose details of the deal.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: MLB leadership. Much smarter than the NFL, obviously.
SEE ALSO:
New England Patriots’ coach Belichick: Microsoft Surface breakdowns are common – January 26, 2016
Microsoft pays $400 million for product placement; Surface tablets fail during Patriots vs. Broncos playoff game – January 24, 2016
A single quarter of iPad Pro sales will exceed the total of all Microsoft Surface tablets ever sold – November 24, 2015
Microsoft pays $400 million for product placement, then NFL announcer calls Surface tablet ‘iPad-like’ on air – September 8, 2014
Buffalo Bills coach Doug Marrone says his Microsoft Surface tablet ‘didn’t work’ for portion of game – August 4, 2014
How Apple’s iPad is revolutionizing NFL playbooks for players and coaches – July 19, 2012
Miami Dolphins latest to replace huge paper playbooks with Apple iPads – June 24, 2012
Cincinnati Bengals go digital with iPad playbooks, join dozen other NFL teams – June 15, 2012
Denver Broncos NFL team transfers traditional playbooks to Apple iPads – April 23, 2012
NFL’s Tampa Bay Bucs give every player an Apple iPad 2 to hold playbook, video – August 25, 2011
NFL teams considering replacing playbooks with Apple iPads – February 4, 2011
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “John Cytron” and “Bob” for the heads up.]
Announcers: it looks like they’re consulting a a Surface-like device down in the dugout–Hell no, John, it’s working and they’re all smiles, must be an iPad Pro.
Cream rises ABOVE the Surface.
This shows the damage to the brain caused by head injuries in the NFL. The NFL actually thinks the Surface is a useful tool.
I am a big NFL fan, but they are run by knuckle draggers stuck in the past. That’s why I canceled my NFL Sunday Ticket and instead got the MLB & NBA package on Apple TV.
Microsoft paid the NFL to place the surface all over the place. Does anyone know how many millions or billions that move cost MS?
Sorry, I should have checked first. Business Insider writes “Prior to the season, Microsoft and the NFL struck a five-year $400 million deal with one of the major components being that the Microsoft Surface would become “the official tablet of the NFL” with coaches and players using the Surface on the sidelines during games.”
How many surface sales to repay the 400m?
Major League Baseball doing what it needs to do to maintain its reputation as America’s greatest sport. Maybe not its most exciting, but at least one whose players have the greater life expectancy.