| Hey, this is Vlad in Tokyo. Apple is expanding its presence in the home fitness industry, but first… Today's top tech news: Like many people across Asia timezones, I stayed up late into the night to watch Apple Inc.'s September event live. My colleague Mark Gurman had already told us what to expect on the hardware front, so I was hoping to spot new software developments that could hint at Apple's priorities. Even small adjustments to the inner workings of a $2.5 trillion company are still monumental in absolute terms. My wish was granted with the presentation for Fitness+. In an event focused on gadgets, Fitness+ got the star treatment among Apple's services, with several trainers walking us through its value proposition and new additions like pilates and guided meditation. The $9.99-per-month service is expanding from six to 21 countries later this year and secured seven minutes in a 78-minute presentation, more air time than Apple's updated entry-level iPad. You already have an idea of what Fitness+ offers if you've heard anything about Peloton's service: exercise classes with peppy coaches helping you power through various workouts and track progress toward milestones. But limbering up with Peloton Interactive Inc. is a pricey affair. Its classes cost a minimum of $12.99 per month and are best used in combination with one of the company's four-figure stationary bikes or treadmills. Apple asks for less and its only essential hardware is an Apple Watch you might already have. Apple's also adding group workouts soon, where you can compete with friends, each tracking your progress via the Watch and seeing it live on your iPhone, iPad or Apple TV. I've never truly understood the appeal of having strangers yelling encouragement at me from a screen—even while Peloton and its competitors have flourished during the pandemic's lockdowns and restrictions—but competing with people I know is obviously compelling stuff. Of course, the company's larger goal is to get you to buy more Apple gear, but many people already have one or more Apple gadgets, and for them this is just an optional upgrade in utility. That's the danger for all the fitness startups still feeling their way through a developing sphere of business, trying to nail down price points, equipment offerings and the like. The barrier to entry for Apple's fitness service is drastically lower, the company has the scale to hit whatever price point it wants to and it has the world's biggest marketing megaphone. You can also opt into a Fitness+ subscription on a whim—something that's hard to imagine with Peloton. I'm not here to tell you that Apple has sunk the prospects of the other players in the home-fitness-gadget industry. If anything, the iPhone maker's big emphasis on Fitness+ is an acknowledgement of the appeal and potential of gear like the Peloton bike. But life could get harder for those companies now that Apple's attention is firmly on their turf. —Vlad Savov The Wall Street Journal published another story based on internal Facebook documents, this one about what happens when employees flag drug cartels and human traffickers on the platform. Chinese smartphone giant Oppo is cutting around 20% of staff in key software and device teams after a merger and an attempt to go after Apple in the premium tier. An obscure Taiwanese company that produces an essential component for chipmaking has seen its stock surge 1,219% during the chip crunch. Facebook removes accounts tied to a German anti-Covid lockdown group. The Department of Homeland Security said in an April briefing that American extremists used TikTok to recruit and share guidance around the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, Politico reported. | 
Post a Comment