Runtastic is an Austrian mobile fitness company that combines traditional fitness with mobile applications, social networking and elements of gamification as a logical reaction to the Quantified Self movement. Runtastic develops activity tracker apps, hardware products, and services, such as: online training logs, detailed data analysis, comparisons to other users, and many more functions to help users improve their overall fitness.
On August 5, 2015, Adidas bought Runtastic for $239 million.
History
The initial idea was born during a project at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria for tracking sailboat races. As the target group was too small, the founders decided to focus on more popular sports, such as: running, biking, or walking. Subsequently, Florian Gschwandtner, Christian Kaar, René Giretzlehner, and Alfred Luger founded the company, Runtastic, in October 2009 in Pasching, Austria.
In August 2015, it was announced that Adidas had acquired Runtastic for EUR220 million ($240 million), this included the 50.1% stake Axel Springer bought in the company back in 2013, making Runtastic entirely owned by Adidas.
Mobile Fitness Apps Video
Products
People can use Runtastic apps in combination with original Runtastic hardware to collect activity data directly within the app. Users can then synchronize the data to Runtastic.com for additional analysis, tracking and sharing.
Apps
Runtastic offers apps for indoor and outdoor sports and fitness activities. As of January 2015, Runtastic had surpassed 100 million downloads. With Runtastic mobile apps (iPhone, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry), users can track their improvement and set goals. The Runtastic app, the core product, tracks a variety of metrics, such as: distance, time, pace, calorie consumption, and it is available in 18 languages.
Social Fitness Platform
Runtastic offers Runtastic.com as part of a comprehensive fitness platform, together with their mobiles apps and proprietary hardware. Here, users can find an even more complete and detailed analysis of their fitness activities. The information can be shared with friends and used to generate social interaction and encouragement. The fitness site is available in 12 languages. As of January 2014, over 25 million registered users access and make use of Runtastic.com on a regular basis.
Hardware
In the first quarter of 2012, Runtastic launched hardware products in order to broaden their reach in the health and fitness industry, rather than simply remaining a software development company.
This was a strategic move planned and carried out in accordance with Runtastic's vision and strategic planning. Providing users with hardware has contributed to Runtastic's growth and has offered the mobile-first company new streams of revenue. European users can purchase Runtastic hardware products in Runtastic's online shop and via select retailers. In the spring of 2013, Runtastic's hardware products became available for purchase in the United States via Amazon.com.
In July 2014, Runtastic launched a 24-hour fitness tracker device, Orbit. The fitness band consists of a removable module and silicone band, and monitors activity and sleep quality. The device was also introduced with a new app to analyze physical activity and sleep cycles, Runtastic Me. On September 4th 2015, Runtastic announced their second wearable device, Moment. A 24-hour wearable that looks like an analogue watch but has their Orbit technology inside, tracking users steps, active minutes, calories burned, distance and sleep cycles. It also contains vibration alerts and an LED for notifications, Moment is also compatible with the same as app as their Orbit.
Reception
The broad acceptance of multi-functional mobile devices generally helped reviews of products that make good use of all the extra functionality (e.g. GPS-tracking, audio and video recording and playback, web-syncing, social sharing). This can be seen in reviews of runtastic products, for example from The Verge, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, TechCrunch or The Next Web.
The New York Times, in an article on mobile fitness apps, especially acknowledged the innovative character of the gamification elements of the runtastic-app: Runtastic's interface has some qualities the others don't (...) Athletes who allow themselves to be tracked can receive "applause" or a "Go, go, go!" over their headphones from viewers. A little creepy, but cool.
Criticism
As critics of standardised health tracking (e.g. body mass index) and health policy decisions based upon such decisions point out, generalised measurements fall short in accounting for the individual differences of the human organism.
Bibliography
Runtastic and its products have been covered in books and articles, some of which have been listed and commeted here (APA 4th Ed.):
- Andrea Zajicek. (2011). Social Comm. Norderstedt: BoD. Page 228.
- Hubert Beck. (2012). Das große Buch vom Marathon - Lauftraining mit System. München: Stiebner Verlag. Page 307.
- Reiner Wichert, & Birgid Eberhardt. (2011). Ambient Assisted Living. Berlin: Springer. Page 287.
- Stefan Bölle. (2012). Joggen mit dem Handy: Zur Eignung von Smartphone-Apps als Trainingsbegleiter. München: Grin Verlag. Page 44.
- Stephan Verclas, & Claudia Linnhoff-Popien. (2011). Smart Mobile Apps. Berlin: Springer. Page 22.
- Tom Rosenkranz. (2012). Marketing im Outernet: Was kommt nach Social Media? München: Grin Verlag. Page 9.
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