I'd guess that it's actually a classic razorblades model - the real product is the classes and the bike is just a way to be able to do the classes from home.
It's probably not surprising that a group of tech people tends more towards introversion and exercising alone, whereas the general population likes the group aspect for motivation.
It's not about introversion, it's the format of the workouts. There are so much more that could have been done with the hardware, instead of limiting to this small use case.
For instance I bike with my club on Zwift using Discord in a group setting. I participate in Zwift races against others. All social stuff, just different.
All the mainstream exercise gear seems to be pretty locked down AFAIK. In the rowing area, even the latest Concept2 controllers look to be pretty old school though they do seem to have a way to connect to phone apps these days. (Though there still isn't a lot there.)
Hydrow goes for the more immersive experience--haven't used one; don't know if it has any third-party support or not.
Most stuff I use for cycling speak ANT+, so it can be combined as one wants. My indoor trainer, my cadance sensor, power meter, speed sensor, HR monitor, watch, head unit, phone, computer all can send or receive through ANT+. That's why you will find most cyclists oppose the Peloton bikes, they are impossible to combine with existing gear.
Apparently there is a indiegogo or other crowdsourcing company that is making a conversion of peloton to allow people to use zwift by putting some hardware on top. Not ideal but gives the bike more function. Will be interested to seee if it’s any good. Clearly not as good as my wahoo kikr
It wouldn't be too hard to make a modification to the PeloMon that allowed this. Right now it is a listen-only device, but with an added UART it could just as well control the Bike.
I didn't want to make (yet another) reply, but I was tempted to ask the parent what they were comparing "group classes" to. I mean, .. individual classes? You're riding at home. By yourself. What's group about it?
Yes, pre-pandemic, there were other people in the room where they recorded the classes. And likely there are other people taking the same class as you, right now. You can see where they're at on the leaderboard. But they're also irrelevant to you. You can just ignore it. You take the class any time you want, and there's one instructor, and the fact that someone in south america happens to be watching the same stream as you isn't really relevant to your experience.
I'd say in the Zwift world, where you race other people on-screen is more of a "group" experience, but again, both of these workouts are highly individual.
I, and most consumers that've been repeatedly burned, go out of our way to avoid products that lock us to them. I'm in the market for an exercise bike, but a lifetime of $35+/mo for classes, in addition to a $2k+ bike with questionable repairability in 1,2,5,10 years, is not something I'll ever want.
It's probably not surprising that a group of tech people tends more towards introversion and exercising alone, whereas the general population likes the group aspect for motivation.