Apple Fitness + subscription service is featured alongside the Series 6 watch

Apple has introduced a new personalized training subscription service alongside new smartwatches and tablets.

Fitness + collects health data collected by an Apple Watch and then displays it along with exercise videos displayed on a larger screen.

The platform will compete with existing iOS fitness apps from Peloton, Les Mills and Fiit.

It also represents a challenge for Fitbit, whose wearable devices benefit from its own health training subscription service.

As many had predicted, Apple decided to withhold the details of its upcoming iPhones for a separate event.

Like some of its rivals, Fitness + also allows competitive users to see how their own efforts stack up against others who have completed the same workout before.

“Health monitoring continues to be an important focus for Apple, and its new Fitness + service indicates its intention to generate more revenue from its products in this area,” said Leo Gebbie of consultancy CCS Insight.

Fitness + will initially launch in six countries, including the US and the UK, before the end of 2020.

It will cost £ 10 per month or £ 80 per year as a separate service, which can be shared between members of the same family.

Alternatively, it can be purchased alongside other Apple services, including iCloud storage, Arcade video games and Apple Music, for about £ 30 per month, as part of the top tier of a service package called Apple One.

Other combinations of services can be subscribed for lower rates.

“Support for 10 different workouts with and without equipment, and the fact that it is sold at a familiar price will make Fitness + very attractive,” said Carolina Milanesi of Silicon Valley-based consultancy Creative Strategies.

“And I don’t think that combining it with the other services is anticompetitive, since you are seeing other services do the same, for example, Disney’s Hulu TV service in the United States with Spotify.”

But one personal trainer said he didn’t see the new service as a competition for individual sessions with an online trainer.

“The real results come from support, responsibility and understanding of human behavior, and the ability to tailor a fitness regimen to an individual so that it is sustainable,” Sam Wake told the BBC.

Apple introduced two new ranges of smart watches: the higher-end Series 6 watch and the lower-priced SE watch.

The Series 6 features a blood oxygen sensor to help monitor conditions affecting the heart and lungs.

Measures SpO2 levels, which indicate the amount of oxygen carried by the user’s red blood cells from the lungs to other parts of the body.

Apple suggested this could act as a means of detecting the early onset of breathing problems, although its fine print says the feature is “not intended for medical use.”

Samsung, Huawei, and Fitbit already sell smartwatches that provide the same facility. However, its ability to offer it has depended on the approval of local health regulators.

The SE model lacks the new sensor and uses a slower processor, but otherwise offers most of the features found on the more expensive model.

These include sleep tracking and a new facility geared toward kids called Family Settings. It can be configured to activate automatic location notifications to a child’s parents when the user visits familiar places such as their grandparents or school.

It also makes it possible to assign a unique phone number to a watch, rather than using one that already belongs to an iPhone.

“One logical use would be for a parent to give their child a cellular-capable Apple Watch so they can stay in touch,” Gebbie said.

“We expect to see watches used in this scenario, rather than a device purchased specifically for this purpose.”

The Series 6 range starts at £ 379 and SE at £ 269.

Apple’s new iPad Air is the company’s first product to be based on a new chip manufacturing process that promises more processing power and better energy efficiency thanks to the fact that transistors can be packed together with higher density than before.

Apple normally releases its new chips inside its iPhone before its iPads, but this year the launch of its new phones has been delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The company suggested that the A14 processor would facilitate 4K video editing and real-world object motion tracking for augmented reality applications.

The machine has a fingerprint sensor built into one of its side buttons to reduce the size of the bezels, and it also introduces a USB-C port, which until now has been limited to the more expensive iPad Pro range.

The new iPad Air also has a slightly larger screen than before at 10.9 inches (27.7 cm), but it costs £ 100 more, starting at £ 579.

The firm also unveiled a new lower-priced entry-level iPad that uses the older A12 chip. It starts at £ 329, which is £ 20 less than before.

Demand for tablets in the broader tech industry has increased since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, as consumers increasingly use them for entertainment, homeschooling, and remote work.

Shipments in the April-July quarter were up 19% over the same period in 2019, according to research firm IDC, with Samsung, Amazon and Huawei among those making even higher profits.

According to IDC figures, Apple iPads are still the market leader, but they only made a 2% annual profit.

“Apple maintained its volume, but its rivals moved ahead with the opportunistic sale of cheaper devices,” said IDC’s Marta Pinto.

Apple also announced that iOS 14, the latest version of its mobile operating system, would launch on Wednesday.

This came as a surprise to many developers, who thought they had more time to submit corresponding new versions of their products to the Apple App Store.