- Yes, Samsung is considering a premium subscription tier 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 in new watches, while being locked behind a paywall for older models
In these cash-strapped times, none of us enjoy paying more than we have to. When our best streaming service prices go up, we grumble, even though more films and TV are added all the time.
Likewise, if we buy a device such as one of the best smartwatches, and previously we’ve been able to use all its features for free, we don’t like being charged a monthly subscription for future ones.
Just ask Garmin users. There was an enormous outcry of vitriol and outrage from the brand’s highly engaged userbase when Garmin introduced its premium tier, Garmin Connect+. Despite promising AI training insights, new LiveTrack abilities for endurance athletes and advanced ways to view your training metrics, the new tier was deemed not good enough for the cost – and especially given the best Garmin watches are sold at premium prices in the first place. The community was in uproar, but Garmin has not wavered, continuing with its plans.
Now, Samsung is in on the act. In an interview with CNet, Samsung’s Head of Digital Health, Dr Hon Pak, confirmed it’s “exploring a premium subscription model similar to 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 the Samsung Galaxy Ring. Any changes Samsung makes here will likely affect the Samsung Health app, so if you want any extra features Samsung decides to bring forward behind a paywall, you’ll need to fork out for a premium tier.
Samsung hasn’t yet revealed whether it’s definitely going ahead, or how much it will cost: these kind of mid-interview slips are likely testing the waters, to see if an outcry as loud as Garmin’s userbase will follow.
The writer of the original article goes on to suggest that Samsung might offer the features for free with its 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 addressing that particular idea.
Just like Garmin Connect+, it’s likely if this premium tier launches, many of the new features that would have come to your watches for free will land behind a paywall instead. This means there’s a risk of ‘feature creep’ so that in a few years’ time, all the features Samsung fans really want will be behind a paywall, forcing users to subscribe to avoid missing out.
To paraphrase Dune, it’s the slow blade that penetrates the shield. Premium tiers are a way for companies to extract long-term revenue from users and subscribers, unlike launching a soon-to-be-obsolete tech product, which creates a temporary revenue spike.
Of course, no-one’s saying you shouldn’t pay a fair price for the features you use, and having your data sat around in a server, ready to be recalled at a moment’s notice, costs companies money in the long term. Many of our best fitness apps require subscription costs, and we rate them highly.
However, when a wearables company offers a subscription tier, that money is recouped as long as you subscribe, as it’s recurring revenue in addition to the one-time purchase of a watch. I can’t shake the feeling that I’m paying twice: once for the privilege of having the watch collect my data, and once to have the data sold back to me in graph form. And however you choose to pay, be it one-off or recurring, I think you should only pay the once.
