Early this year I was happy to hear about Hole19‘s Apple Watch app. Probably they were the first in the golf industry who developed an app also fro Apple Watch. Today, PING has launched bravely, as an early adopter among golf equipment brands, its iPING app for Apple Watch. Actually, this is an upgrade of their exisiting iPING mobile app.
Check out the features and details below the picture!
PING’s in-house app development team said that they focused on the health benefits during the app development process. PING’s new Golf Workout feature integrates with Apple’s Health. I think it happened intentionally, since activity tracking capability is one of the TOP3 purchase criteria.
In the Swing Practice mode, golfers can also time their backswing and downswing, providing a measure of tempo to help hone their swings for improved results on the course. The Play Golf function allows the stat-focused golfer to track important data, including fairways hit, greens in regulation, and putts per round. You can also keep score using the PING app on Apple Watch.
PING app will also tell you how consistent is your game (=Putting Handicap (PHcp)).
What many marketers ask from me: how can we monetize our mobile app? One of my answers/recommendation is in-app purchase. Google’s AdMob said that this type of monetization is forecast to account for 64% of app revenue by 2015. So it is a good solution from PING.
My other remarks:
- What I don’t understand why is there a brand quiz. It is absolutely not the right place.
- What is their engagement mechanism?
- How they facilitate conversation (aka 2-way communication)?
- It would be better if we could use this app for various golf club types (no changes since the first version).
- How will the app help to interpret the data?
Despite of my critics…my kudos to PING..
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