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Smart Fitness: How to Build a Runkeeper App and Become the Market Leader

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Vlad Dm
Smart Fitness: How to Build a Runkeeper App and Become the Market Leader
Sports are an integral part of many people's lives. Modern technologies make it easier to track progress and provide customers with a variety of solutions starting from sport-oriented devices like smartwatches and fitness trackers and ending with specialized software. Taking into account the rapidly growing popularity of a healthy lifestyle and sports in general, the niche of fitness apps is a very perspective one. The examples of solutions like the Runkeeper app prove that fact.  
In this article, we will closely consider all the issues you are going to be faced with while developing an app like Runkeeper and give you some practical advice we have repeatedly applied before in mobile app development.

Know your competitors and know yourself

I suppose that it is not a secret that competition within every niche somehow related to IT is extremely high. In order to emerge victorious from this fight and create a solution intended to emulate the success of Runkeeper app, you should analyze solutions implemented by market leaders.
This step will help you weigh all the pros and cons of other run distance tracker applications and create a solution that meets the customers' needs much better than other niche players do.

Strava

Platforms: iOS, Android, Apple Watch, Android Wear, Fitness trackers
Downloads: over 10 million
Monetization: subscription model
This app has a run distance tracker along with a training tracker where some gamified features take place. Stava is able to track your moving speed and distance traveled. Among other features, it is worth noting that social components represented by Leaderboards where users may compete with friends.

Map My Run

Platforms: iOS, Android, Apple Watch, Android Wear, Fitness trackers
Downloads: over 5 million
Monetization: subscription model / in-app ads
Map My Run is a pedometer app for Android and iOS that uses a smartphone's GPS and other sensors for tracking and displaying your workouts, its duration, movement speed and total distance traveled. The application allows users to keep track of both real-time and general statistics. Premium subscriptions allow you to use voice briefing and geodata

Runtastic

Platforms: iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Apple Watch, Android Wear, Fitness trackers
Downloads: over 10 million
Monetization: subscription model
Runtastic is an app to track distance and other fitness-related events in a real-time mode. Its detailed workout log allows users to see the progress for a certain period of time. After the session is over all the data is transferred to Apple Health or Google Fit.
It is worth noting that the balance between free and premium features in this app that tracks how far you run is well-thought-out and focused on retaining an audience that does not want to purchase a premium subscription.
Pro features of run distance tracker Runastic
Premium features in Runtastic fitness app by platforms (Source: Runtastic)
 
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