Peloton have long since established their role as the epitome of at-home workout luxury. Their bikes which routinely sell for more than $2,000 – and that’s not including the monthly subscription to Peloton’s workout classes – are held in high regard by the fitness industry at large, and the unanimous envy of all who prefer to shun the gym in favour of the spare bedroom.
Of course, in a fashion that has become something of a trademark for the tech industry, Peloton is seeing a number of direct competitors creeping out of the woodwork – and, among those competitors, is none other than Apple.
While Apple is most well-known for the MacBook and the iPhone, it has held a growing interest in the world of fitness for a number of years – starting with its first foray into the Apple Watch back in 2015 – and, where there is the opportunity for unique tech, Apple is likely to show up sooner or later.
Read more about Apple’s move toward Peloton, below.
The Wider Movement to Digitalise Experiences
While Peloton is relatively new onto the scene – the first bike was only released six years ago, and already it has earned an esteemed position within the world of fitness – the wider move toward digitalising real-life experiences has been ongoing for many years.
Consider the popularity of Watch Parties, which enable friends to stream and enjoy movies in sync with one another rather than venturing to the movie theatre, or think about payouts for online poker Canada from Casino.com, which evoke the same feelings in players as their real world counterparts.
Any area which can be effectively translated into a virtual experience, without losing that intangible quality which makes it such a firm favourite among millions across the world, represents an incredibly lucrative opportunity to developers and tech companies.
What is Apple Doing?
Apple has placed itself in direct competition with Peloton’s subscription service. For $9.99 a month, rather than the $12.99 being charged by Peloton, users gain access to an incredibly wide array of fitness videos and sessions that totally replace the need to go to the gym, or sign up for a physical membership.
Of course, the one thing Apple is lacking is the hardware offered by Peloton: the bike. Apple Fitness+ offers the workouts, but not the equipment – it operates on the assumption that users will adopt a BYO approach to the videos.
For anyone who knows how Apple operates, this is an interesting deviation from their usual model. Always keen to demonstrate their pride for the brand, Apple have maintained an exclusivity to their products and hardware that precludes any other tech company from utilising it.
For Apple to release a service that requires users to bring their own devices is a notable deviation from their norm. When they released the Apple TV+ video streaming subscription service back in 2019, the Apple TV had already been existence for a number of years, for instance.
Rather than requiring any specialise equipment, Apple Fitness+ merely insists that users own an Apple Watch. It’s a transparent move to ensure that users continue to invest their money into Apple’s products – we can all see that, namely because the Apple Watch would still be able to perform all those functions for which users buy it whether the service was exclusive to watch owners, or not.
This is where Peloton retains the edge over Apple. Yes, the bikes are overpriced, but they serve a purpose – particularly in videos that utilise them. For Apple, this is simply an excellent example of bad practices – practices that seek to isolate their users in one camp, and exclude anyone who does not sing the praises of their hardware.
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