Here’s a post I wrote on my blog earlier this year – https://www.apple.com/ca/newsroom/2020/09/apple-fitness-plus-a-personalized-fitness-experience-comes-to-life-with-apple-watch/.
I upgraded my Apple Watch from Series 5 to Series 9 as a birthday gift in February this year. I started using the Apple Watch because I like technology, not because I was interested in fitness. Until last year, I did yoga and swimming occasionally, and meditated regularly with an app called Balance. However, when I recently upgraded my Apple Watch, I was surprised to receive a 3-month trial of Apple Fitness+.
At first, I was skeptical and didn’t even consider taking advantage of the free trial as I would never exercise. But out of curiosity, I installed it and to my surprise, it changed my life for the better. As someone who doesn’t have a New Year’s resolution to get fit and hit the gym regularly, I always find it a pain to walk downstairs to the gym after work.
Since I started using Apple Fitness+, I have changed for the better. I have met my exercise goal every day for the past 53 days, with the exception of April 16th due to travel. The app stays true to Apple’s design philosophy, looking beautiful and being very easy to use. It offers a variety of workouts, including meditation, strength training, HIIT, yoga, core training, pilates, dance, kickboxing, cycling, treadmill, rowing and a mindful cooldown (for relaxing after a workout).
The best thing about Fintess+ is that it seamlessly integrates with your iPad and Apple Watch to track your progress, calories burned and heart rate. Workout using your iPad while wearing your Apple Watch. That’s Apple! We value simplicity and convenience over tons of features.
What is your favorite product? is a typical question that every product manager is asked. The answer will naturally fluctuate due to recent trends. So, my favorite product right now is Apple Fitness+. Let me put myself in the shoes of a product manager and explain the problem Apple is trying to solve here, Apple’s product strategy, and what I like about this product and what I envision for it in the future.
Like me, many people struggle to find the motivation, time, and resources to incorporate regular exercise into their daily routines. There is a demand for versatile, engaging fitness solutions that cater to a variety of fitness levels and preferences, encourage consistency in physical activity, and seamlessly integrate with users’ existing technology devices for improved ease of use and tracking.
“Apple’s greatest contribution to humanity is health” — Tim Cook
Apple has recently developed a range of fitness-related hardware (e.g. Watch, AirPods). Apple rarely tries to win on hardware specs alone, given their push for Apple One, which is Apple’s own bundle/subscription service that is 30-50% cheaper than individual subscriptions to Apple services. Each piece of hardware can be a launchpad for new super-profitable services for Apple hardware, which is why the Apple Watch was able to launch Fitness+.
This is a clear strategy for Apple and a typical smart move. With every new device launch, the company makes money twice: once from the sale of the physical device and once from the subscription of the service. There is also a view that Silicon Valley companies will eventually become banks. This is evident from the fact that Apple already offers card services, but to expand their banking capabilities, they need to have products available for each industry so that they can expand this service as well.
According to Future Business Insights, the global health and fitness club market size is expected to grow from $112.17 billion in 2023 to $202.78 billion by 2030, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.83%. The pandemic also saw a major paradigm shift from in-person gym training to remote or virtual at-home fitness, and even after the world returned to normal, this situation has not changed much.
Fitness+ is aimed at users looking to get started in a structured way, fitness enthusiasts looking to change things up, the perfect companion when they can’t get to the gym and those looking for a convenient supplement to their daily routine. The workouts require no weights at all or only minimal weights that can be purchased online at affordable prices. Users can also add it to their gym workouts like cycling, treadmill, rowing etc, especially those that most users don’t have access to at home.
Fitness+ is not for users who have special dietary requirements, who need live feedback on their form and posture, or who want to use specialized equipment that isn’t easily affordable.
Apple also collects valuable health data through the device (only with user consent). For example, I wear my Apple Watch when I go to bed at night to track my sleep patterns, but it’s surprising that on an average I only get 6 hours of sleep a night and my sleep cycle is very poor.
With the amazing news of Apple Watch saving a person’s life by detecting a drop in heart rate, and many other examples, Apple could completely revolutionize the healthcare industry.
It’s also a highly competitive field that includes local gyms and fitness clubs as well as big names like Pelaton, Fitbit Premium, Samsung, Nike Training Club, Mirror (Lululemon), Zwift, Daily Burn, and millions of YouTube channels. We’ve also seen a recent increase in the adoption of meditation apps (Calm, Headspace, Balance, etc.) mainly due to the pandemic and the current generation’s increased awareness of mental health. So Fitness+ addresses both physical and mental health.
Healthcare is a highly regulated sector with high standards for data privacy and security. Apple needs to continually innovate to stay relevant in this space. Even with loyal users like me, the Fitness+ service requires an Apple device, so capturing the non-Apple market remains a challenge.
Current Fitness+ Features
Simple and beautiful design with intuitive operability.
Gamification: We love the gamification aspect of Fitness+, which turns exercise into a fun adventure. Closing a ring on your watch becomes a quest, fuelled by fun animations and a rewarding points system, with your trainer repeatedly reminding you to pick a ring too. You can share your workouts with friends and even share them together. Closed rings aren’t a metric, but closing them gives you a sense of victory.
Diverse Workouts: Fitness+ offers a library of workouts to cater to different types of exercise and difficulty needs, including a 30-day core challenge and beginner fitness. You can also use the mindful cool-down option to relax after your workout. It’s a complete end-to-end experience. You can pause the workout, but you can’t skip or fast-forward, which is a good thing because it forces you to make the workout your own and not skip. You can also create your own custom workout plan.
Each workout features a set of songs/albums/artists associated with Apple Music, showcasing new music and encouraging you to use Apple Music.
The special focus on mindfulness and sleep meditations is really commendable, but I still find myself tempted to use the meditation-only Balance app to focus on mental health. Once Apple adds more specific meditations and techniques for practicing them, Fitness+ may be a future option.
They have a great team of trainers who not only help you get through your workouts but also give you motivational pep talks. The variety of trainers is another great thing about Fitness+. They even use sign language. I haven’t tried “Time to Walk” yet, but I’ve heard it’s an immersive experience in itself, with celebrities telling fascinating stories as you start walking.
The affordability is one of the big pluses for me: at $12.99 CAD per month (or) $99 CAD per year, I will definitely be paying the subscription fee once the free trial is over.
What does the future hold for Fitness+?
In other words, it’s full of possibilities.
Live, on-demand training with expert trainers can be a game changer. It helps prevent injuries during training and can also be combined with a professional diet plan. Adding features like a calorie tracker and meal planner empowers users to make informed food choices and holds them accountable to their trainers instead of doing cheat days.
The amount of health data Apple collects will not only enable the healthcare industry to come up with novel solutions to health issues but also give users recommendations and the ability to take care of themselves if needed.
From my experience using Oculus for working out, I feel Fitness+ fits nicely into Apple’s Vision Pro portfolio and could use this as an added value proposition in the future.
Apple can also expand its hardware capabilities with exercise equipment like Pelaton, which has a built-in smart system for training users.
With so many exciting features and possibilities, I think Apple has a win on their hands with limitless possibilities. This is just my observations and it’s very possible I could dig deeper and provide more insights. If you find this interesting and think there’s an opportunity for Apple to do more with Fitness+, I’d be happy to discuss it.
reference:
https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/health-and-fitness-club-market-108652
https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/apple-watch-saves-mans-life-frank-haggerty-lawrenceville-new-jersey/
