I wouldn't want to be Peleton, Mirror, or one of those similar companies. Is it worth the extra $1000+ up front and $30+ monthly for the Peleton and Mirror trainers to mention your name?
It's like when you're at a Cheap Trick concert and the singer shouts, "Hello, Madison! Are you ready to rock?!"
Hopefully, the concert is actually in Madison, and isn't in Hoboken.
For those that don't know the backstory, Bucharest is the capital of Romania. Budapest is the capital of Hungary. Romania and Hungary don't like each other. The safest way to get a crowd to boo as an entertainer you is to mix up the two names :-)
Or, for more embarrassment: https://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/soccer-dirty-tackle/400-athle...
The Twitch business model revolves around communities more than it does a streamer saying someone's name. I subscribe to streamers but the emoticons to use in other chats. Many people donate not just for someone to say their name but for their donation to get read out by text-to-speech engines. Some streamers even have AI driven TTS which has famous people voices.
The same can't really be said about things like Peloton.
Fitness+ absolutely is encroaching on that subscription workout space, but a physical bike/treadmill and a watch are not competitors. If someone wants a stationary bike they're not going to be shopping for a smart watch.
I would be scared if I ran Peloton. Their entire MO is the ecosystem; you buy the bike, with the integrated tablet, and use their fitness program. Outside of the top 1% who could drop three grand on the Peloton system without blinking, Apple's whole "$500 dirt cheap bike + $300 brand new iPad (that you may already have) + $30/month Apple One Premier" system (that you may already subscribe to) is killer.
Yeah, you can BYOB to Peloton, but Fitness+ (especially as a part of Apple One now) is dirt cheap. At that point, Peloton (and competing products) basically just has to hope that the workout quality in Fitness+ sucks, which isn't likely (this is Apple we're talking about, they rarely half-ass things).
The main drive of Peloton if you aren't buying their bike is the instructors and high quality classes - I struggle to imagine many people would care more about watch integration than class quality, and I don't think Apple will be able to win out on the latter anytime soon.
I would not bet money on Apple losing on class quality, let alone variety.
Also Apple is offering yearly pricing that works out to $6.67/mo...and then there is the bundle which if you are in the ecosystem already essentially makes it a free service...
This is key. How many people would subscribe to Prime TV if they didn’t already have a Prime membership. My guess is not many. Luckily for Netflix people consume enough that it’s not really a killer. But with fitness you probably only need a single provider. That said, I’ve lost confidence in apple’s ability to execute, but this seems like a race they could easily dominate if done right.
You'll be able to go on Amazon and buy [Bike/Treadmill/etc] with "Fitness+ Compatible" that streams wirelessly to your watch/phone.
Then Peleton offers no value add. They're just a treadmill maker charging 250% of their competitors.
This really isn't new at all (Zwift, Trainerroad, Sufferfest, Aaptiv, etc). Hell even today all that Peloton offers over competitors is nice treadmills and a closed/proprietary protocol for integration (unlike those other examples). I do expect that Apple will likely package and market it very thoughtfully for mass-market, which is significant. One could argue that Peloton is also all about its mass-market appeal, which is exactly why we're talking about Peloton and not the enthusiast-oriented brands like Wahoo.
Peloton did also just release a new bike that does work with Apple's GymKit too, so, I don't think it's just the metrics.
Mirror... I never really understood that one in the first place but I'll assume the folks who love it love it probably feel the same way.
But with the Apple product, you're not limited to bike and treadmill. It was demonstrated with all kinds of workout routines.
And replacing a $1,000 Peloton with the far cheaper stationary bike of your choosing will be attractive to some people.
It doesn't sound like it would be too hard to do this with computer vision. I guess it would depend on whether the device is positioned where it can see your legs -- or you might be able to figure it out by observing head or shoulder movement.
Especially if you're one of the millions of people in a downsizing mood.
$1,000 + $30/month for Peleton, or a monthly fee to Apple that vanishes into the bundle of things you'd subscribe to anyway and use the devices you may already have. Or if you were thinking of getting one anyway, now you have a further incentive.
Peloton or Mirror at the hotel. No. Outside. No. On vacation. No. Plus I thing this is a wider offering. Peloton yoga and weights workouts are really sub-par. I have no experience with mirror.
Disclosure: Shareholder of Apple and Lululemon. Not a shareholder in Peloton.
Business-wise, it would be a disaster. As soon as it was discovered (or disclosed) that the trainer saying, “Good hustle, Janet!” is an AI robot, Janet is not going to react the same way.
I'm used to Siri talking to me already. Although she rarely says my name, if she were cheering me on during a personalized workout, I'd be lying if I said that wouldn't be motivating.
My fitness 'workflow' is pretty well established, and it's Apple Watch centric already. If this Fitness+ business will count my lift reps for me, I'll probably get it.
I'd be more worried about apple integrating into the hardware people want.
There probably won't be an impact on PTON until Apple starts selling stationary cycles.