- Yes, Samsung is considering a premium -subscription level for Samsung Health
- This is no rumor – it was confirmed in an interview with Samsung’s head of digital health
- Advanced coaching features would be included free of charge in new watches while locked behind a payment wall for older models
In these cash strings, none of us enjoy paying more than we should. As our best streaming service prices rise, we are grumbling, although more movies and TV are added all the time.
Likewise, if we buy a device as one of the best smartwatches, and in the past we have been able to use all its features for free, we do not like to be charged a monthly subscription for future.
Just ask Garmin users. There was a huge scream of vitriol and indignation from the brand’s very committed user base when Garmin introduced his premium level, Garmin Connect+. Despite promising AI training insights, new life rack skills to endurance athletes and advanced ways to see your training metrics, the new level was considered not good enough for costs -and especially considering the best Garmin -ure sold at Premium prices in the first place. Society was in rebellion, but Garmin has not wobbled and continued with his plans.
Now Samsung is in the action. In an interview with CNET, Samsung’s head of Digital Health, Dr. Hon Pak that it “explored a premium subscription model that looks like Fitbit Premium or Garmin’s new Connect Plus that requires a monthly subscription to unlock advanced coaching features.”
This is bad news for Samsung Galaxy Watch owners and even owners of the best Samsung phones or Samsung Galaxy Ring. Any changes Samsung makes here is likely to affect the Samsung Health app, so if you want extra features Samsung to decide to perform behind a paywall, fork to a premium level.
Samsung has not yet revealed whether it is definitely moving on or how much it will cost: this kind of mid-interview-glider who is likely to test the water to see if a scream as loud as Garmin’s user base will follow.
The author of the original article continues to suggest that Samsung may be able to offer the features for free with his new watch and make them available owners of older models for a fee, but there are no direct quotes from PAK or anyone at Samsung that addresses the particular idea.
Like Garmin Connect+, it is likely that if this premium level is launched, many of the new features that would have come to your watches will land behind a payment wall instead. This means that there is a risk of ‘Feature Creep’, so in a few years all the features that Samsung fans really want to be behind a payment wall, forcing users to subscribe to avoid missing out on.
To paraphrase DuneIt is the slow blade that penetrates the shield. Premium levels are a way for companies to extract long-term revenue from users and subscribers, as opposed to launching a soon-to-Obsolete tech product that creates a temporary income tip.
Of course, no one says you should not pay a reasonable price for the features you are using and having your data sat around on a server, ready to be remembered in a moment, companies cost money in the long term. Many of our best fitness apps require subscription costs and we evaluate them a lot.
But when a Wearables company offers a subscription level, this money is repaid as long as you subscribe as it is recurring revenue in addition to the disposable purchase of a watch. I can’t shake the feeling that I pay twice: once for the privilege of getting the clock to collect my data, and once to get the data sold back to me in graph form. And where you choose to pay, be it once or recurring, I think you only have to pay at that time.
