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Samsung is hoping to woo fitness tracker fans with one key advantage: no subscription fees. At a time when many health companies charge users monthly for their services, the new Galaxy Ring, Galaxy Watch 7And Galaxy Watch Ultra arrive without software paywalls.
Samsung Health, Samsung’s unified health and wellness app, has been free to customers since its launch in 2012. Standard on all Samsung smartwatches (and now, Samsung smart rings) Samsung Health allows users to monitor and analyze information about their well-being. It is packed with interesting features such as sleep analysis, exercise tracking, nutrition plans, period predictions and much more, mainly based on data collected by Samsung wearables.
This year’s wearable collection ups the ante with sophisticated health tools like sleep apnea detection and AGE Index readings, plus personalized insights powered by Galaxy AI and Samsung latest generation BioActive sensor. When I sat down with Dr. Hon Pak, Samsung’s vice president and head of the digital health team, to learn more about these latest additions to Samsung Health, I couldn’t help but ask: When the heck will Samsung start charging for all of this?
Galaxy Ring and Galaxy Watch subscription fees: What you need to know
Speaking to a small group of media after Samsung Unboxed 2024Dr. Pak explained the highlights of this year’s wearables and what they can do to “simplify healthcare wherever possible” as healthcare moves largely into the home.
Samsung’s commitment to democratizing users’ personal understanding of health seems evident, given that it doesn’t require recurring payments beyond the initial hardware investment. It’s become a major talking point Galaxy Ring vs Oura Ringthe latter market leader in smart rings charging $5.99 per month for its fitness tracking services.
There have been times when services have moved to paid formats after the fact, either to capitalize on demand or to offset the costs associated with developing and maintaining core features. But Dr. Pak is confident that won’t be the case for Samsung Health’s current feature set.
“With the features we have today, we’re not going to go back and say you have to pay for this,” Dr. Pak said. “I don’t think that’s going to happen. From my conversations with executives, we’re not going to offer something for free and then go back.”
But that doesn’t mean Samsung Health will remain 100% free forever.
“When we add more value than we give, at some point it can become valuable enough that we charge a premium service,” Dr. Pak said.
Dr. Pak gave an example of the type of functionality that might have the kind of value that customers would be willing to pay for:
“Let’s say we have a medication tracking feature that’s already launched in the U.S., that’s been well adopted and people love it,” he said. “We’re working with Walgreens so Walgreens customers can automatically upload their prescriptions. But what if we could help you refill your prescriptions and offer you a price finder? And if we did all that and added value to you, should we charge you a subscription fee? Maybe that’s an option to consider.”
According to Dr. Pak, there is “no timeline” or guarantee that Samsung will implement a paid structure for future feature rollouts. But it should give everyone peace of mind. pre-order their Galaxy Ring Or pre-order their new Galaxy Watch that they will not face subscription fees to use current features, including the new ones that have just been announced.