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  • Apple Offers Free Fitness App in UK
Technology Articles > Software > Development > Apple Offers Free Fitness App in UK

Apple might be testing out a fitness app that’s kind of like FitBit. The company has recently release a free fitness app in Britain that pays people to get fit.

Users can get ‘Sweatcoins’ for each step taken, and those virtual coins can be used for rewards and traded like real currency. So how will this app be different from all the other fitness apps out there? Here’s a closer look.

How Sweatcoin is Different

Sweatcoin uses software to track how many steps a person takes, but the company also includes location tagging details. This way, people can’t fool the app into thinking they took more steps than they actually did, which wouldn’t really matter but the idea behind Sweatcoin is that the virtual coins can be traded like real currency.

It’s within Sweatcoin’s interest to make sure that people are accurately logging steps. So far, the company has teamed up with Apple to bring the people of the UK a free fitness app, but it’s easy to see how Apple could segway this into something bigger that produces an extra revenue stream for the company.

The App

The new Apple app (available for free in Britain through the Apple store and actually headed to Android soon) offers users one ‘coin’ for every 1,000 steps taken. Once users have enough coins (which really doesn’t take that long if you move around a lot during the course of a day), they can exchange those coins for actual fitness items.

The Potential

It’s obvious that the potential for marketing here is massive. Apple has hooked up with Sweatcoin because the company sees something in the startup. Sweatcoin, in turn, is going to match up with various sporting retailers so that users can trade the virtual coins for real world items. Users will like the app because it’s free (for now) and it means walking to get things - something that most people will find largely appealing.

It’s highly likely that a lot of fitness enthusiasts will pay for this app when Apple does decide to release it worldwide. Right now, there is no talk of the app making it to other markets, but it does look like it’s headed in that direction. Apple has delved into the fitness world many times, and the company has recently talked about developing new items, so this might be one thing that Apple is working on.

Sweatcoin Info

Sweatcoin is a relatively new company -- so new that the company doesn’t really even have a webpage up at the moment. The company is based in Britain and is largely a startup. Apple has seen the potential in the Sweatcoin company already, which is why Apple has already partnered with the startup.

I’m betting that we will be seeing a lot more from Apple on this fitness front in the very near future - and Apple might even be purchasing Sweatcoin. All of this is exciting news on the Apple front, since the company hasn’t really released anything interesting for some time now.