Subscribe to stay fit: Fitbit Premium arrives in SA for R149pm

If you’d rather work up a sweat on the weekend than binge-watch TV shows, there’s a new subscription service just for you. Fitbit on Wednesday announced that Fitbit Premium — its premium tier for more serious users — is now available in South Africa.

More data, more personalisation

Premium is a paid subscription tier offering users a more personalised look at their data.

It includes more available workouts through Fitbit Coach, a number of new workout regimens tailored specifically to your goals, and personalised insights based on activity, habits and fitness progress.

More sleep score details are available too, as well as analysis of your sleep stages and duration.

Once unlocked the above is available within the Fitbit app. But all this doesn’t come for free.

Fitbit is offering Premium in South Africa for R149 per month, with the option to purchase it annually also available.

Notably, Fitbit Premium doesn’t just work on the newly-announced Versa 2, but across the company’s other wearables too. This means that legacy users can also leap into the big data pool.

Those who do buy the Versa 2 Special Edition, though, get a 90-day free trial. A seven-day free trial is also available to all other users.

(Additionally, the trial also auto-renews on Google Play too, so be sure to cancel it 24 hours before the final day to ensure that doesn’t happen if you don’t plan to use the service.)

Fitness-as-a-service

The subscription service for fitness is a bold leap for Fitbit, which has traditionally been a hardware company.

Fitbit Premium, if successful, could spark its transition from a device maker to a service provider.

It’s novel for the fitness industry, but it’s a model that we’ve seen other companies embrace. Think Google, Apple and Microsoft.

None of these, however, have yet launched a fitness-as-a-service offering for users concerned about their health.

Could Fitbit be on to something?

Edit: A previous version of this article stated that any version of the new Fitbit Versa 2 allowed users a 90-day trial of Fitbit Premium, however, this only applies to those who purchase the Special Edition watch. We’ve updated the article to reflect this.

Feature image: The Fitbit Ionic, by Andy Walker/Memeburn