As FitBit and the Apple Watch popularize the idea of wearing devices that track your health data, more and more apps are rising up and helping people get the best fitness experience possible. One particularly popular company, MyFitnessPal just took another step toward becoming a profitable business.
The fitness tracking app recently launched a new subscription service that will let fitness aficionados take their exercise to the next level. The free service originally allowed users to track what they ate. The developers eventually added activity tracking and meal suggestions based on what foods were tracked, but MyFitnessPal founder Mike Lee told The Verge that "People want to go beyond the calorie." That's why MyFitnessPal, and its owner Under Armour, is launching a premium subscription service.
Lee says that MyFitnessPal's new service will "offer [customers] a way to make custom reports, to dig deeper into the nutrient density of the food, and to customize the measurements used to plan their meals." The service will cost $9.99 a month, or $49.99 a year, and will be available on iOS.
This is a particularly interesting move for Under Armour, since it has very little history with data collection. However, it does have a history of serving and marketing to muscle-y types. While the app was designed just to help maintain the user's weight and diet, it has developed a following with health buff types who are very invested in exercise and who are also likely to invest a lot of money in Under Armour gear.
How does MyFitnessPal hope to compete with Google and Apple's developing attempts at tracking health data? Lee says that community is a key factor.
"Data is fine, but to keep people coming back to the app, you need community. ...That's what we have that they don't." Under Armour also revealed that between MyFitnessPal and Endomodo, which Under Armour recently acquired, the sports clothing maker has more than 120 million people sending Under Armour data.
Under Armour has experimented with wearable fitness trackers in the past and had a lot of success despite not having a good app. The Verge notes that MyFitnessPal could be the app that would make Under Armour a viable candidate in the wearables market.
