Today’s consumers expect intelligent technology integrations in many of the products they buy, including their home fitness equipment.
Nautilus, Inc. strives to deliver breakthrough technology with its line of Bowflex® fitness equipment, but was struggling to achieve the desired integration while still keeping its products affordable.
A new partnership with Samsung eliminated the cost obstacles and freed Nautilus to innovate with groundbreaking software delivered via Samsung Galaxy tablets that mount on Bowflex products such as the Max Trainer®.
“We want to make sure that everything we design offers a really legitimate, really effective workout,” said Julia Eschman, director of consumer experience, Nautilus Home Fitness Solutions. “On top of that, we try to create experiences that are more engaging and more motivating, so that our customers continue to use those products for the life of their ownership.”
Customer experience enhancement had been a challenge in the past. “We were kind of always left to the mercy of what we could afford for technology,” Eschman explained. “Samsung really opens up opportunities in that space to finally become more modern and relevant and be able to offer touch screen experiences to our customers.”
“At this point we are just getting our feet wet,” she added. “Having the option for the tablet to come with the product helps the user feel like there is a dedicated device that has all the features they need, and it’s presented in a much more sophisticated way because it’s a full-color touch screen experience. From a sales perspective, it’s shown really positive results.”
Personalized workouts delivered through artificial intelligence
The partnership with Samsung has put Bowflex on a continuous improvement path, where they can deliver a seamless user experience while refining apps such as Max Intelligence and deploying them automatically.
“The reason we chose Samsung for the partnership for the tablet is that it was immediately customizable for our needs,” said Wes Citti, digital product line manager at Nautilus Home Fitness Solutions. Samsung Knox Configure is the linchpin of the mobile technology initiative, because it enables Bowflex to custom configure every tablet before it’s delivered.
“[Knox Configure lets Bowflex] curate the experience for our customers, so if a customer wants to buy a machine, the tablet comes preloaded with everything they need to get up and running,” Citti explained. “We wanted to make that experience as seamless as possible, so when people buy the Bowflex product in the form of the Max Trainer and subscribe to the Max Intelligence platform, they’re getting an AI personal trainer to design custom workouts for the Max Trainer based on where they are today. Because it’s an always-online app, it will check for updates.”
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The Samsung Galaxy tablet is configured to automatically download updates to the software and even to the firmware built into the Bowflex machine.
“What Knox allowed Bowflex to do was ensure that what they wanted to have on the tablet was always there,” said Fred Less, enterprise sales senior professional for Samsung. “So if I, as a customer, accidentally factory-reset my tablet and lost my Bowflex application, my workout videos and my history of working out, Knox allows that to be recovered and stay on the device to create a consistent experience for the end user.”
He added that Bowflex has made good use of all that Samsung has to offer, from hardware to software to integration expertise. “You need someone to integrate these pieces and put them together to deliver something that is meaningful to someone’s business,” he said. “Samsung Business Services provided the resources to facilitate logistics, stage kits, provision devices and make sure every SKU was the way it should be.”
More innovations ahead
Pairing tablets with home workout equipment is just a starting point. Bowflex has already transformed the home workout experience, but the journey is just beginning. The future possibilities are limitless.
“We have lots of ideas for what we want to do in the future with those types of devices,” said Eschman. “Embedding them into our products and then figuring out how we integrate what we do with off-product experiences, like using Samsung Health or wearable devices. Our team really gets excited about the future of that.”
Ready for the next step in your fitness journey? Learn how wearables can help create a more engaging fitness experience.
