Redwood City, California-based startup Striiv, makers of a dedicated portable fitness device of the same name, has launched its first iPhone app, Striiv Smart Pedometer. The free app appears to have much of the same functionality as the company's $99 dedicated device. Striiv partnered with MyFitnessPal for its calorie counting features and large food database.
Striiv's dedicated device encourages users to exercise by incentivizing them with virtual trophies and points that can be used to build their own virtual worlds. The app appears to offer the same kinds of virtual rewards and incentives, but unlike the dedicated device's rewards, the app description does not mention whether exercising can lead to real-world fund raising.
The Striiv device is a standalone pedometer (no mobile phone required) that can hang on a keychain or attach to a belt. Its sensors are able to differentiate between walking, running, climbing stairs, and hiking. Using points earned from activity, users can donate clean water to children in South America or polio vaccines to children in India thanks to Striiv’s partnership with GlobalGiving.
“For many of us, fitness is the first thing that falls off the schedule,” Striiv’s Head of Design Lexy Franklin told MobiHealthNews this past spring. “Our target user is in their 40s. They are busy. They have a family. That’s who we created the Striiv Smart Pedometer for — we call it the first ’smart’ pedometer because it learns from your activity, learns your behavior and motivates you to walk a lot more throughout the day. Striiv senses when you are getting close to a personal goal and gives you additional goals and challenges that are just out of reach to keep you exercising.”
At the time Franklin said that Striiv’s average user was a 47-year-old woman with a BMI around 30. The company’s goal is to help motivate Striiv users to walk just a little bit more each day.
