A few weeks ago, CEO John Foley told me Peloton would become more than “a stationary bike company” for video exercise classes.
Now it is a bit clearer what the next leg of development will look like.
New York-based Peloton recently released an app—Peloton Anywhere—that brings its video streams of indoor cycling classes to Apple iPhones. The app can also send the content, via AirPlay wireless streaming, to Apple TV. This is not the first foray into mobile for the company though. Peloton already had an app designed for iPads, but Peloton Anywhere does make the video classes a touch more portable through a smaller device.
CTO and co-founder Yony Feng (pictured above riding the bike) spoke with me about Peloton’s newest app and how it fits with an idea he had for the company from its early days. “Our goal was to break down the walls of a spin class,” he says.
Peloton runs a studio out of Chelsea where instructors conduct indoor cycling classes. Video of those classes are streamed live and on demand, for a monthly fee, to owners of the Peloton exercise bike, which was built with a touch screen for that purpose. In addition to Peloton’s bikes, people can also stream the classes to iPads for use with other indoor cycles.
As Peloton matured, Feng says, its library of exercise biking content became a large part of the company’s value proposition. “It made sense to distribute this content in other formats,” he says.
Naturally the user still needs an indoor bike to use with the new app. Putting it on a smartphone increases the possibility for people to stream Peloton’s content while away from home, Feng says, for example at a hotel gym. The app could also be used as a sort of test drive of Peloton’s offerings. “People might be curious about Peloton, but might not want to make the initial $2,000 investment into the hardware,” Feng says.
In 2016, he says, Peloton plans to introduce more features for its members, such as easier browsing and signing up for live classes through their phones. They will also be able to see if their friends on social media are also Peloton users, and check out the classes they have taken. No word yet though on when Peloton might introduce a non-iOS version of the app for other mobile devices.
