Peloton cuts back on Apple Watch support
connectthewatts.com
connectthewatts.com
> The spokesperson also said: “Peloton is committed to bringing the GymKit integration to all workouts and disciplines within Apple’s terms of service,” seemingly suggesting bootcamp workouts didn’t fall under those terms.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/15/22385515/peloton-bike-plu...
I don't understand why the other fitness types ran afoul of the rules... Maybe there wasn't a strict 1-to-1 mapping of activity types which Apple didn't like?
As in, Apple is extending their moat to eliminate Pelton as a competitor.
See for example Spotify
I owe you a citation for what I'm about to say (or hopefully someone else has a link; my google-fu is failing me), but other devs/founders/etc on HN have noted that Apple also objects to devs calling Apple out for enforcing their own rules.
This would be a subtle way of working around that draconian restriction.
Looks like the "strict 1-to-1 mapping of activity types" is the issue here.
I recently got a Peloton Bike+, and it is one of the best mixtures of physical and software product I have ever seen. By far the best for anything exercise related.
I had been riding on a basic bike with Apple Fitness+, and I enjoyed it a lot, but the Peloton is next level. For cycling classes, it blows everything out of the water. It doesn't just have the standard music and cycling stuff that Soul Cycle and others made popular in person, it has all of the Power Zone classes that are based on improving your specific fitness levels with data and classes tailored to you.
I am not giving Peleton the win I am just saying that it is pretty slick interface for getting a work out and making you sweat without the small headaches of integration on Zwift etc. That said - if all I want is to improve my cycling, Peleton doesn't help me in the same way. However if I am trying to stay fit with small workouts and lots of variation in the off season - its perfect.
6 months from now I'll figure out which one gets the W.
Curious to learn more about maximizing the use of a very expensive hardware (for me).
Yes though your point is taken - this is definitely expensive hardware in both circumstances. Both have addictive (in a good way) qualities to tie you back into coming for more. Normally I would say that as a negative thing but in this instance it is a good thing.
When I was training for races I would want to be primarily on my bike, but for just offsetting my Oreo addiction the Peloton is perfect.
Zwift, Trainerroad, etc. are good for people looking to train to become better cyclists. You do largely need to bring your own setup, which can often be complicated (although you can then get a setup that mirrors your outdoor work).
I am referring to fitness training, not training to become a better road cyclist, and I suspect most people that use a Peloton or go to Soul Cycle have no intention of training to become better at road cycling. They are doing so to become fitter, and Peloton's training is specifically aimed at improving various areas of fitness. So when I refer to training, I am referring to training to improve specific fitness goals and not training to become a better cyclist.
I have no interest in becoming a good cyclist, but I am looking to improve my fitness across a variety of metrics. I also weight train and do other stuff, but I have found the Peloton approach to indoor cycling well suited to helping meet specific fitness goals.
Peloton caters more to general fitness types with a "spin class" approach using "instructors" and their slick hardware and ecosystem. It's probably a better choice for people who aren't cyclists.
Zwift caters more to dedicated cyclists who typically use Zwift to augment their outdoor training routines with indoor time (avoiding weather and timing/safety issues etc). Cyclists use their own bikes since they're fit for the rider, with their own (more accurate) power meters, etc. Zwift also considers weight, bike aerodynamics, etc. in sort of a "gamified" virtual representation of cycling.
TLDR; Peloton is a group of people riding Peloton machines in "virtual spin class" while Zwift is a group of people riding their own bikes indoors, most who also ride outdoors on Strava.
It markets itself as being a master of all trades, jack of none. When it is infact a jack of all trades master of none. For example the cycling workouts are far far behind what Trainerroad, Zwift or Peloton provide, with regards to dynamic workouts based on physiological performance.
The reality is that Peloton doesn't really have an option, since the competitive advantage is health/exercise data. Allowing Apple continued access to user health data via Apple Watch means Peloton devices will be increasingly viewed as commodities - it's just an exercise bike. Also Apple probably will add spin classes to its Fitness+ service soon, which puts them at a direct competition with Peloton's core revenue stream.
So you either try to stem the bleeding early, or fade slowly into irrelevance as your products become commoditized. Users may love their Pelotons but I'm surmise that they prefer their Apple devices more. It's like users don't care much for their mobile carriers as long as their iPhones are compatible on those carrier networks.
*edit: I also own an Apple watch, but I only use it for tracking # of minutes while running outside. And for telling the time.
I don't own one, but from people I know that do own one, the brand seems very good at turning their customers into that sort of ideal fanatical user. [1]
[0] Q2 2021 shareholder letter p2
https://investor.onepeloton.com/static-files/dd43f8b8-acc9-4...
[1] I don't mean fanatical as an insult to the users :P More power to you if it makes you work out. But for a company a 'multiple times per day' user who is probably also telling friends about the product is the dream.
It all seems intentionally designed to juice their engagement data.
That being said, most of the more casual users are probably not doing this. I know that most of the people I know/follow on there are doing one or two activities per day of use, and it seems they are a mix of discipline, so like a 20 min ride and then a stretching class or weights.
By the way this is generally referred to as a "saddle curve".
But I like the imagery: it would be lovely if "bell" and "saddle" curves were referred to as "dromedary" and "bactrian" curves!
I have a Peloton and Apple Watch, I've historically had a FitBit.
The FitBit would recognize when you were on a run and auto record everything - the Apple Watch can't do this, about 20% of the time it'll ask if you're on a run and makes you confirm that you are (which is easy to miss).
The Fitness app has a bug that suggests nobody even looks at it. If your speed is increasing (you're running faster) and so your mileage time is going down (takes you fewer minutes to run a mile) and that's trending down as a result the App says "oh no you're trending downward" - but obviously in that case getting faster and getting your mileage time down is a good thing.
The Peloton stuff is solid and you can still share it to the health app - real time tracking via the watch doesn't matter that much. Anyone who does actual cycling will have a garmin computer or something anyway.
The Apple Watch fitness stuff is maybe okay for people that don't exercise and just want some walking tracking motivation - it's pretty bad for everything else.
You could just use a third party heart rate tracker to accomplish this, but that's one more thing to put on.
But if you got a chest strap with it, that would 100% do the same thing.
I like having one device that tracks my heart rate through all of the activities I do (including sleeping).
I really don't care what the tool I'm using has as long as it integrates with the Apple Fitness system.
I use an Apple Watch with my Bike+. I only do cycling workouts, so I never noticed this limitation, but it does seem odd.
It's possible that Apple didn't feel some of the data tracking for other activities was particularly accurate. Apple spends millions to test people doing different workouts and to measure the caloric spend, and maybe Apple only thought the data was accurate for cycling. Bootcamp classes in particular are a really nebulous concept.
Apple has workout modes for all different kinds of exercise built into the Apple Watch based on data they have gathered from large samples of test subjects. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple felt the cycling data was accurate, and the other stuff that Peloton was doing a lot less so (and a lot less accurate than popping into a workout mode directly on your Watch).
Peloton has freakishly high Net Promoter Score(NPS) from most high paying customers.
The power of belonging, community, and shared effort/mission is incredibly powerful.
Especially in a time of such COVID disconnection.
Peloton as a business against Apple seems insurmountable.
Peloton as a cult/tribe against Apple seems achievable.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Peloton tattoos mirroring Harley-Davidson.
Some commenters think it won’t be the case due to sweat? Good luck betting $100B market cap being stopped by the lack of innovation in preventing sweat issues.
You definitely wouldn’t want to use an exercise bike after me if you saw what it looked like when I was done, before I wiped it down.
If the Oculus has a level of water resistance to it that means it can take workout sessions from heavy sweaters that is a pleasant surprise!
Is this from personal experience or just conjecture? Because this is not common problem. Also this is what towels are for. You can also have interchangeable padding to either be more absorbent of sweat or less depending your preferences.
I'd need to have a couple of these absorbant interchangable sweat pads for an hours workout if I wanted this thing to have any chance of staying in place. And cleaning it afterwards would be a must, even so it sounds absolutely grim after a few uses. Plus they are pretty uncomfortable (my experience). I suppose it might be tolerable if I was just lightly spinning through a magical VR world enjoying the views. But I'd rather be using regular Zwift and getting fit.
No, I'm saying that lots of sweat will not break a VR system. Personally, I just use a towel on my neck and it's more than good enough VR workouts, but everyone is different
As for towels - do you ride while periodically removing your headset and wiping your face? I can't imagine myself doing it. I have giant industrial fan that takes care of a perspiration and which is totally useless if most of my face is covered with that blob of VR set.
I consider myself a heavy sweater since my shirts are drenched even working without VR
1. Momentarily take off your VR headset.
2. Wipe your sweat using the towel on your neck
3. Put your VR HMD back on and continue working out
4. Repeat when sweat becomes an issue again in 30 minutes
> The headset will absorb the sweat.
Not if you add a silicone liner on top of the padding of your VR headset.
It seems like most of the pundits critical of using VR for working out haven't even tried it themselves
I my case the issue resurfaces in a minute or so.
>"Not if you add a silicone liner on top of the padding of your VR headset"
Actually in my case liner or not any area of my body that is covered sweats.
Anyways your advises sound like I have to bend backwards to make use of that VR. I'll wait till VR does that instead. If not fine with me. I have other things to do.
>"It seems like most of the pundits critical of using VR for working out haven't even tried it themselves"
You are making unfounded assumptions here.
You need a VR headset or strap that's easy to take off and put on. They typically operate with a dial on the back. You also probably need to rely on multiple pads that can absorb sweat. Not sure if there are any other solutions to mitigate extremely heavy facial sweating.
I'm a pretty heavy sweater myself, where it feels like the entire top half of my body is drenched in sweat including my face. The only time facial sweat annoys me is when it clouds the VR screens. Otherwise, my ritual works fine since I'm still able to constantly wipe the portion of my face that isnt' covered the VR headset and any other sweat gets caught by the towel on my neck
How would you even know what would happen working out with VR when it seems that you haven't even tried it yet?
> You are making unfounded assumptions here.
It's a pretty healthy assumption when you have commenters here making ridiculous claims like sweat routinely destroying VR headsets. I'm ok with valid criticisms of VR and there are many; I can write a fairly large blog post focusing on just downsides of VR. However, I'm not going to tolerate bad assumptions that aren't based on any real personal experience, or just reality in general
I tried it. Sorry but I can not tolerate that thing on me while under real physical load. Anyway to each their own. If it works for you - enjoy.
VR is more accessible, more flexible, offers a lot more variety, all for a much lower price than Peloton and other similar offerings.
They'll wait until you depend on Apple hardware, or until they trap your users within their own user-base ecosystem, then will casually demand you pay the piper.
From the article:
> But even if it is planning a release later this year, taking away some of the Apple support now could be a strategic tactic to help early adoption.
Is this the type of competition that's good for consumers? Is this a good market outcome that we like to see happening? Or would it be better if Peleton was forced to compete by adding new features to their own smartwatch rather than taking features away from every other platform/device?
These promises can be expensive to maintain, restrict changes and if you break the promise, it's worse than if you had not made the promise in the first place.
Imagine Peloton did open their API and some third-party did create Apple Watch support. Every time they do a software update or release a new machine, they may break something in the third-party integration, which leaves the third-party to scramble to fix the issue. To mitigate this, Peloton would have to do communicate changes and provide beta releases -- that is, start and run a developer relations program.
This is not small potatoes. Opening an API that will actually be useful is a big, on-going deal.
Now also consider the third-party who has created the integration. They are making a promise of their own to their end-users, especially if they are charging or manage user data. Yet they are highly dependent on Peloton's promise (API) to be able to fulfill their promise to their end-users. It's a precarious network of dependencies that will break when the interests or priorities of any the parties diverge (and they will diverge over time -- they are separate parties with different concerns).
Keep in mind that if Peloton has decided they no longer want to maintain Apple Watch support, they could just as easily (and for the same reason) decide not to maintain the API that would make it possible for a third-party to provide that support. In fact, I think Peloton would be a lot more OK with cutting off a third-party developer -- who is not their customer -- than in taking features from their customers directly as they did in this case.
I'd be happy if they just left their own door open, I'm not asking for commercial support.
The idea that a useful api would need to be a huge complicated affair just doesn't register to me. It's an exercise bike.
I love my Peloton but don't have an Apple watch so I don't have a dog in this fight, but I have friends who do who really look to their Apple watch for HR/general fitness monitoring, and if the idea is to get people to adopt to the Peloton watch/wearable, well, that's gonna be a real tough battle to win.
The treadmill works seamlessly with Zwift, which shocked the hell out of me considering that Bluetooth is involved. Fire up the 'mill, fire up Zwift, and Zwift asks if you want to connect. I'm more of a "I'd rather run in the rain than inside" person, but I've used it often enough to say that the Zwift/treadmill connection is solid and works reliably. I have not attempted to connect the treadmill to anything else. I have used it for Fitness+ workouts, and just use the spinny wheel controls to control speed and incline. My wife uses it work walking/running workouts with iFit doing the same. I don't think we're missing much by not having software control the effort. On a treadmill, I don't even know that would be safe (I'm curious if, for example, Peloton's treadmill does that).
As for the treadmill itself, I avoid treadmills when I can so I'm no expert. But after about nine months, I'd recommend it. I used to be fast, now I doubt I'd crack a 3:00 marathon due to age. With that as a baseline, the deck is long enough for my 6'/1.8m frame, and it's fast enough (12mph/~20kph) for intervals. Speaking of intervals, it has two easy-to-reach buttons (on those stalks, if you're looking at a picture of it) that can be preset for speed/incline. One button "recovery", one for "interval effort", and intervals are less fiddly. Presets are per-user, too, so my wife can have her own setup.
All of those can be connected to simulators like Zwift or a host of others and provide way more training options than you can get on a high priced, proprietary "Peloton" spinning bike no real ergo features.
For example, if you want to ride in an actual indoor peloton simulation and make use of drafting for fun and profit, you want something like a Tacx Neo running Zwift ...IMHO.
If you ditch "Peloton" and go with what the pros train on you can use any smart watch you like.
* It's in quotes because peloton is a common word in wide usage in cycling and this company, "Peloton", has tried to trademark it. They've spent a not inconsiderable amount of time and money threatening bloggers using it in it's true meaning.
Not everyone is motivated enough to build it themselves if they have the means to buy a prebuilt.
Having said that, an exercise bike was sort of my gateway to hobby cycling and I ended up investing in a smart trainer and a used road bike. Once you set it up and find an app you prefer, you can’t go back. Just as you can’t go back to buying a prebuilt PC if you’ve built one in the past.
A little bit of research goes a long way, but some people would rather not and just focus on what’s important: getting fit. Setting up a smart trainer, although extremely simple, wasn’t obvious when I first got into it. I wasn’t sure which parts to choose and why.
Eh, I think it depends on where your life takes you. Other than an IBM PC XT, I'm not sure we ever had a pre-built desktop PC in our home while I was growing up. Naturally I built all of my computers going off to school, but around ~2004 I made the jump to mostly Macs (and later Chrome devices) -- since then the closest I've come to building my own PC at home is buying an Intel NUC kit and outfitting it with an SSD and some RAM. That said, I think I get my fill of computer tinkering at work fiddling with BIOS and other firmware SPIs, PCIe cabling, bad QSFP optics, and even the odd trivial PCB rework :)
On the other hand, while I don't see it as likely I'll get into biking, I own enough sets of skis to call it a quiver, yet I'm still actively debating which new kit to pick up for next season.
An actual indoor peloton simulation, with drafting is definitely superior on Zwift. 90% of people don't want this - the target market is very small and doesn't make sense. This is fine! Leaves room for smaller players.
"We're not [publishing MAU numbers], but I can tell you a couple of tidbits. We've had over 3 million accounts created on the platform. We recently peaked around, I think 45,000 simultaneous users, but hundreds of thousands of customers are using Zwift on a daily basis."
So they definitely don't have 2.5 million users. Maybe they'll get there though!
(source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/robreed/2021/02/17/do-you-even-...)
This is simply not true. Perhaps you do not know those people but there are plenty of Texans using Zwift.
As for market cap - I own and use many old things. As long as they work why would I give a flying fuck about market cap of the companies that had made those. They might not even be (like my treadmill) in business anymore.
I have a Bowflex bike and my wife and my wife pays for a Peloton subscription just for the classes.
Personally I need outside time be it running or riding a bike. And I don’t care to train at home for improving my performance. Still a good enough simulation with a good coach and I might bite
That being said... /Peloton/Apple/s and I feel the point still stands. It's a weird feature of IP law that either Apple or Peloton deciding that they don't like each other means X hundreds or thousands of users just have their products that they've already bought suddenly get worse overnight.
I think at some point we should ask whether that's a consequence of IP that's desirable for the market and/or for users.
I went with Keiser, which I pair with my Garmin watch for tracking.
But Peloton still gets some money from me since I use their $14.99/mo (edit: the app is $12.99/mo, with tax I pay $14.30) standalone app for workouts.
I have a Fitbit because all I wanted was a fitness tracker, not a fully functional smart watch, but the ability to use it for my workouts is important. But it does a decent enough job of tracking effort just based on heart rate without knowing every detail of resistance, cadence, etc.
I used to use an old iPad to watch Peloton classes, but now I have a Roku for the TV, so I run the Peloton app on the Roku so I can watch the class on the big screen.
Many of my friends went with the Peloton and swear by it. If you're fine being platform-locked for $39/mo it's a great option. The bike is quality, the classes are amazing, and the peer competition is motivating. All that wasn't for me though.
Since I use the standalone Peloton app with my Keiser, if Peloton raises their fee I can easily switch to another one.
Anyone that already likes spin classes wants one of these bikes. And compared to what you would pay to go to a live class at a spin studio the $40 a month is a drop in the bucket. The fact that both you and your spouse or roommate can use the same subscription with separate accounts further stacks the financials in Peloton's direction. The fact that you can hop on the thing whenever you want from the comfort of your home is another huge plus.
The bike won't last forever, but its not like the screen is going to "age out" at any point. And if the whole thing somehow completely dies in 3 years it will still have been a fine investment relative to the alternatives. Certainly you can ride for cheaper but nothing else comes close to the experience for the money.
It's the same thing as buying a Roku and paying for Netflix.
Seems more like buying an expensive Netflix player, which will only show photo albums from an SD card unless you subscribe to Netflix.
Or, buying a Peloton bike is more like buying a Roku to watch movies and then having to pay for a Roku subscription or it's useless because it doesn't work with Netflix.
Thank you for the overly-literal semantic quibbling, it wouldn't be HN without it.
There are features gated to the Peloton bike which gives a downside to the bring-your-own-bike route and muddies the waters somewhat. If the Peloton app supported ERG mode with full interactivity, I’d probably be willing to pay $25/mo, because it is a really high quality service.
However this kills half their market because of people like me who are invested in the Android eco-system so much that having an iPhone is a non-starter.
The Galaxy watches from Samsung are equivalent though and I'd say about the same accuracy for things like step count, calories, distance.
And if I lose motivation and stop, I just cancel the membership. I don't have to dispose of equipment or have it sitting around reminding me of my failure.
Also there are people who workout who use Android phones.
If you just use it for the cycling classes and for yourself, it's probably not a great deal (financially). But if you also do the HIIT, running, yoga, strength, etc. classes and you (like many people) are a bit more consistent with a coach (even a virtual one) than working out by yourself, it can be worth it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/us/politics/biden-peloton...
Its certainly a certain set of people who are most familiar with them - but that's not a "valley" vs "outside the valley" thing.
> Peloton was popular before the pandemic with a wealthy subset of home exercisers, but with the quarantine, it has become something of a phenomenon in a certain socioeconomic bracket. There are Peloton message boards (“Joe Biden has a Peloton,” Peloton Forum reported this week), and the company’s celebrity instructors have huge followings on Facebook and Instagram.
The article indicated that people were buying Apple watches specifically for use with Peloton, so there does seem to be at least some market there. By disabling Apple Watch, those people won’t have an alternative option.
Germany isn't exactly famous for harsh rulings on companies' unlawful activities.
It does not feel like Apple cares enough about the watch relative to its other businesses. If they did they wouldn't have shipped a device that should probably be in beta.
If I was a partner firm I would not invest significantly in the watch platform. Maybe in a 4+ years, but I really doubt it.
Very true.
> I do not stream my music. My phone does not even have mobile data plan. I have hard copy. Since my phone has high capacity SD card all my music fits though. I just play it on random using foobar2000.
...though sounds like probably more people are like birdyrooster than like you.
Everyone is trying to be megacorp these days.
Been playing Rome: Total War for the past few days. It going me thinking that empire just can’t stop expanding. You conquer one province, thinking that barbarian neighbor won’t be a problem ever again. But then you realize your empire now borders some other barbarians who start harassing you. And then you need more troops to keep the new citizens from rioting. Which requires money, which means the drums of war are at it again...
You’re identifying a deficiency of imperial systems. They were one of the only ways to get growth in our close to zero sum past. In a world with a growing global economy, on the other hand, warring and imperialism are self-defeating long run strategies.
Objectively, no. They don't. You can't capture the intangible capital of a country through invasion. The greater the ratio of intangible capital (skills, trust, institutions, et cetera) to tangible capital, the less effective classical empires become.
Resource-rich countries, on the other hand, are still subject to imperial dynamics.
That's revolution, not imperialism.
That’s assuming there’s no end to the growth. But the resources here on earth are limited.
One, there is more in the universe than this earth. And two, the resource intensity of GDP growth is falling. (A new iPhone is more capable than its predecessors without requiring comparatively more resources. And a web comic can create millions in value with comparatively little burn.)
Someone forgot to tell everyone buying a smartwatch that - Apple has a 50% marketshare in the market, whereas Garmin is around 7%.
Has CPU, memory, storage, and is user programmable.
Smells like a computer to me.
The first “computers” were people. A pedant might say the entire industry moved on from “computers”.
Banal political filings have little bearing on what makes a computer.
OP made a pointless semantic separation.
This was a flawed comment because the premise was incorrect - they stopped being "Apple Computer" a long time ago.
Yes, Apple makes computers like macs and iphones and watches. A huge part of their "watch computer" is fitness, and they have an on-demand fitness video service to accompany that.
Peloton does the same, but also has bike hardware as the foundation of their experience.
If Peloton releases a fitness watch, then in addition to competing on fitness videos, they begin competing on the watch. At that point, Peloton's only unique offering (WRT Apple) is the bike.
My recommendation, if you're a cyclist, would be a Wahoo Kickr Snap (wheel drive). Easy to mount the bike, wheels stay on, so easy to pull off when you ride outside. Then use whatever app you want (Wahoo's own, if you want basic stuff; Zwift if you want the social stuff and racing; TrainerRoad if you want straight up training programs with no fluff).
The Wahoo and Stages bikes both look really nice, but they're mega-$$$$ (more than the Peloton, IIRC).
Maybe a fraction of the money, but you still pay for that cost elsewhere, mainly in terms of convenience. Of course with something so integrated like Peloton, you pay in lack of extensibility.
And the integration is super solid. You pretty much just turn on the trainer, and open up (eg) Zwift on your iPad, and you're off to the races.
Source: I am a serious cyclist, and use these things 3-4 times a week.
What I'm saying is that Peloton is a whole integrated experience which has, in some regards, more conveniences. Some people value that.
If all you want to do is ride inside, you can get an entry-level aluminum road bike for $900 new, or about half that used. The upgrades you get on nicer bikes are things that don't tend to show up for inside riding.
The entry level KIKR is $500. So, yeah, still WAY cheaper than Peloton, even with an entry-level bike, which was the original point.
As for mounting, the entry-level models are actually EASIER to deal with for this than the nicer ones. The higher-end KICKRs are "wheel-off" trainers that mount directly to the bike and have their own rear cassette. This is better for lots of reasons (stability, power accuracy, plus no need for a "trainer tire"), but mounting is more of a chore because you have to deal with the chain.
The lower end models are "wheel-on" trainers that have a resistance wheel that you spin with the real bike wheel. Mounting is a sub-1-minute operation. Most serious outdoor riders even up just keeping an older bike on their trainers, sure, and I mostly do that, but my wife also uses our KICKR, so there's still swapping to do. It's really no big deal. I expect it's only slightly more difficult than changing the adjustments on a Peloton between riders, to be honest.
We did that for about a month. Then bought a second KICKR. We leave out cyclocross bikes mounted. I'll swap my road bike on over winter because the taller gearing is needed for Zwift racing.
It does take up significant room - our basement family room is more than half exercise equipment (2 trainers, 1 Concept II rower). The remaining space is barely enough for sofa, TV on a sideboard, and a bookshelf (which is half full of bike helmets and related gear).
In therms of dollars, yeah, it's pricey, but compared to gym memberships (now all cancelled), or the bikes themselves, it's pocket change.
It's also very, very obvious that he is a wealthy former engineer. In a charming and nerdy way.
I was looking a lot at all this, as I was pretty keen on Zwift, and then i finally just threw my hands up, realised i couldn't be bothered, and just bought a peloton.
The set-up is dead simple. You need a stationary bike of some sort, usually with some sort of BT speed or power sensor. Pair that to pretty much any standard tablet or laptop, run the Zwift software, and off you go.
Slightly less "auto-magic" than Peloton, but nothing particularly confusing either.
And then $15/month for Zwift.
Peloton is $2500 (if you want auto-resistance). And then a $40/month subscription. And if Peloton folds, or changes their mind on services, or obsoletes the device you purchased, you're SOL.
I have my Kickr set up in the basement. It's no less convenient than a Peloton - it's there all the time, and I run Zwift through an iPad (but it will run on a laptop, Apple TV, Android phone, etc).
The hardware brand itself isn't that valuable, IMO. Perhaps the subscription revenue is, but Apple doesn't need Peloton's undifferentiated bike or brand name to participate in that market, and has world-class marketers of their own.
Apple probably won't make exercise hardware unless they can make exercise hardware vastly better than what is presently available. Peloton is not that.
Agree that this is short sighted and a game they can’t win. My watch works perfectly fine for me without being connected to the bike; they lose for not ingesting my heart rate data.
However the correct term for this, I think, is "bait and switch". When you buy a tech product and it has a feature that is arbitrarily taken away from you. Frankly it should be illegal. Lots of companies have done this and will continue to do it until they can't.
Not supporting Apple Health was what killed FitBit, so hopefully Peloton avoids learning this lesson the hard way.
That may have influenced their decision to market their own watch as well.
Source please.
I don't typically see many good use cases for running your own apps on the watch but there's many medical/fitness applications for the data itself.
My watch only has a few apps outside of fitness and alerting, everything else gets deleted. I found Audible and podcasting apps useful.
I think the first generation of Apple Watches were woefully underpowered for what they pitched as a development platform. The resources were very limited. Developers had to nail optimizations, and that was a shock in today's world where too many developers just npm install or pip3 install their problems away. It's very telling that early on, despite having a ton of apps, the fastest, most stable ones were the included ones by Apple and Google Maps.
The result were a ton of slow, crashy apps with poor connection reliability. Users, myself included, got pissed, blamed the apps, and developers just said this wasn't worth it.
> Apple shipped 7.6 million smartwatches worldwide in the first quarter of 2020, according to recent data from Strategy Analytics, an increase of 23% compared to 6.2 million in the first quarter of 2019. As such, Apple now claims 55% of the smartwatch market, representing a slight increase from the 54% it controlled in the same period one year ago, according to the research firm. [0]
[0] https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-watch-sales-numbers-st...
Also: https://www.statista.com/chart/15035/worldwide-smartwatch-sh...
I've had both a Polar and Garmin watch and neither were close to my Apple 3 for GPS accuracy or heart rate. My wife has a 2020 Garmin and we stand around waiting for her watch to get all of it's "bars"
* The 245 locks GPS really, really fast. I never have to wait for it. Much, much faster than my older 630. The Apple Watch doesn't even tell you if it has locked a signal. I think it would lock fast if I had my phone with me, since it would use the phone's GPS to save watch battery, but I think it would be confused if I left my phone in the house while stepping out the front door for a run.
* The 245 has physical buttons that reliably work with sweaty fingers in the summer and with gloves in the winter. So many times I couldn't stop a workout on the Apple Watch because of the swipe needed.
* Display is always on, no need to raise my arm directly in front of my face to turn it on. Too many times I had to raise or twist my arm multiple times to see my pace with Apple.