Peloton's CEO calls Apple Fitness+ a 'legitimization of fitness content'
With Apple announcing Fitness+ during Peloton's first investor meeting, Peloton's CEO was immediately questioned about Apple entering the same business.
John Foley, second from left, with Peloton Team | Image Credit: Peloton
Apple announced Apple Fitness+, a streaming fitness program for Apple Watch wearers, at the September "Time Flies" event. The service seeks to combine the health-tracking capabilities of the Apple Watch with instructor-guided workouts.
The move has made Apple a direct rival to Peloton, another company known for making high-end workout equipment -- treadmills and stationary bikes -- and pairing them with streaming fitness content.
The announcement came in the middle of Peloton's first-ever investor meeting as a public company. As a result, Peloton shares dipped slightly, but have been up about 4% just prior to publication.
"We're just digesting the announcement like everybody," Peloton's CEO John Foley told CNBC. "The biggest thing I will say is it's quite a legitimization of fitness content, to the extent the biggest company in the word, a $2 trillion company, is coming in and saying fitness content matters. It's meaningful enough for Apple."
He suggested that Peloton continued to distinguish itself by providing equipment, which Apple does not.
"They're not coming into that [hardware] category," Foley said about Apple. "They're just going to be the content. And we think the special sauce, the magic, is our connected platforms and in order to work out at home you need a stationary bike if you're going to be biking, you need a treadmill if you're going to be running."
Peloton's equipment is targeted toward a different audience -- those who are willing to spend thousands of dollars on getting fit. Peloton's cheapest bike costs $1,895, while their Peloton Tread+ starts at $4,295. Peloton offers two different membership options, too. A $13 tier allows a single user to take Peloton fitness classes and doesn't require any Peloton equipment. A $40 tier requires a Peloton Bike, Bike+ or Tread+, and gives a full family access to health metrics, guided workouts, and more.
Conversely, an Apple Watch Series 3, the minimum requirement to access Fitness+, costs $199. A subscription to Fitness+ will be $9.99 at launch and will cover up to five family members.
Recently, Peloton announced a new Peloton Bike+, which will easily pair with the Apple Watch through GymKit.
John Foley, second from left, with Peloton Team | Image Credit: Peloton
Apple announced Apple Fitness+, a streaming fitness program for Apple Watch wearers, at the September "Time Flies" event. The service seeks to combine the health-tracking capabilities of the Apple Watch with instructor-guided workouts.
The move has made Apple a direct rival to Peloton, another company known for making high-end workout equipment -- treadmills and stationary bikes -- and pairing them with streaming fitness content.
The announcement came in the middle of Peloton's first-ever investor meeting as a public company. As a result, Peloton shares dipped slightly, but have been up about 4% just prior to publication.
"We're just digesting the announcement like everybody," Peloton's CEO John Foley told CNBC. "The biggest thing I will say is it's quite a legitimization of fitness content, to the extent the biggest company in the word, a $2 trillion company, is coming in and saying fitness content matters. It's meaningful enough for Apple."
He suggested that Peloton continued to distinguish itself by providing equipment, which Apple does not.
"They're not coming into that [hardware] category," Foley said about Apple. "They're just going to be the content. And we think the special sauce, the magic, is our connected platforms and in order to work out at home you need a stationary bike if you're going to be biking, you need a treadmill if you're going to be running."
Peloton's equipment is targeted toward a different audience -- those who are willing to spend thousands of dollars on getting fit. Peloton's cheapest bike costs $1,895, while their Peloton Tread+ starts at $4,295. Peloton offers two different membership options, too. A $13 tier allows a single user to take Peloton fitness classes and doesn't require any Peloton equipment. A $40 tier requires a Peloton Bike, Bike+ or Tread+, and gives a full family access to health metrics, guided workouts, and more.
Conversely, an Apple Watch Series 3, the minimum requirement to access Fitness+, costs $199. A subscription to Fitness+ will be $9.99 at launch and will cover up to five family members.
Recently, Peloton announced a new Peloton Bike+, which will easily pair with the Apple Watch through GymKit.
Comments
Maybe Peloton is a company Apple could team up with. A Beats style acquisition where they work as a subsidiary would be ideal but maybe too expensive at this point.
Fitness videos have always been available, on apps as well as free Youtube videos, but offerings like Fitness+ will hopefully be more organised and will help Users be a little more disciplined.
Is Apple "whining" then they pursue grievances against other companies?
Should the legitimate legal and financial issues that other companies have with Apple be ignored regardless of any financial harm that they experience? (Or merely based on principle especially if Apple has pursued issues with them in the past)?
Do you take the stance that "Apple is always right"? If so, what justifies this position?
I take the position that Apple is just another company who pursues its own interests without regard to the effects that its actions has on others. Which is totally fine. That is Apple's job. However, other companies should do the same: pursue their own interests.
It really seems like Apple advocates believe that other companies should be Apple advocates too, and prioritize Apple's interests over their own. And that governments should always take Apple's side in every dispute, even when it means reversing stances that they took when siding with Apple in the past. (For example: IP laws only apply when Apple sues other companies ... not when other companies sue Apple).
In this case, it isn't so much that "Peloton is a standup company and Spotify isn't." Instead, it is that Peloton sells their own hardware that Apple does not compete with. Meaning that they aren't in competition with Apple at all. Were Apple to come out with their own line of exercise bikes and decided to sell them at cost in order to make more money on Apple One subscriptions, a business model that is only viable because they make so much money on iPhones and iPads, Peloton wouldn't be nearly as magnaminous.