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Comment by tw04 | Hacker News Reader

Unless Apple is releasing a bike and treadmill I doubt Peloton has much to be concerned with. Half the draw is the fact the tread and bike are both extremely high quality and directly track what you're doing (distance, not just heart rate). I don't even think Apple currently has a compatible cadence sensor?

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.

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Unless Apple is releasing a bike and treadmill I doubt Peloton has much to be concerned with.

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.

The people for whom that's attractive aren't Peloton's real target market anyway. If you're positioning as a luxury lifestyle brand you don't worry about the people building their own.

Peloton's competitor product is Peloton Digital which is £12.99/mo, doesn't require the bike or treadmill and includes all kinds of workout routines.

But if you want to buy a digital fitness program, why should you ever choose Peloton's? Especially when you probably already have an iPhone, an Apple Watch, and airpods.

I think this is really more of a people business than an ecosystem/technology one. Obviously there are benefits to being Apple, they might well give themselves some private APIs so they have features nobody else does, I'm sure they'll use Activity Awards exclusive to Fitness+. But ultimately Peloton has a massive backlog of great classes by great instructors, and a continuous stream of the same. Apple have to replicate that to play in this space, and if they don't then it won't matter how clever they are tech-wise or how much their ecosystem makes it appealing.

> I don't even think Apple currently has a compatible cadence sensor?

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.

Many other manufacturers with a lot more fitness experience have attempted to market devices that calculate cadence from wrist or chest sensors and all of them have been terrible. If you want cadence (or power or speed) on a bike, you need the respective sensor on the bike itself.

Doesn't the Apple Watch already do this?

Damn I'd buy an iBike.

I'd buy an iLoo.

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