After buying MapMyFitness, Under Armour launches a fitness tracking app for iOS and Android, partners with HTC to develop products for the platform
Under Armour launches new fitness app, partners with HTC — Under Armour nabbed MapMyFitness in late 2013, and at this year's CES …
Context & Ripple Effects
Under Armour arrived at CES having already turned the late-2013 MapMyFitness purchase into a live iOS and Android tracking app, with HTC signed on as the platform's hardware partner. Within weeks it doubled down on software, paying $475M for MyFitnessPal and $85M for Endomondo to round out the audience.
The pairing made sense because each side lacked what the other had: Under Armour had users but no devices, while HTC needed non-phone product lines. The subsequent record — slipped hardware dates, a bundled box, then eventual divestment — makes this launch the opening move of a five-year connected-fitness experiment.
First-order effects
- Under Armour gains an immediate consumer touchpoint on iOS and Android, converting acquired MapMyFitness users into an owned audience rather than rented social reach.
- HTC secures a marquee lifestyle brand for its push beyond smartphones, giving its hardware roadmap a software platform it did not have to build.
Second-order effects
- Execution strains surface fast: the joint tracker slips through late 2015, with HTC repeatedly delaying the device and promising a broader suite instead.
- By early 2016 the partnership hardens into a single priced SKU — the $400 HealthBox bundling scales, fitness and heart-rate trackers — forcing Under Armour to compete on hardware economics against established device makers.
Third-order effects
- The endgame arrives in October 2020: MyFitnessPal is sold to Francisco Partners for $345M against the $475M paid (a loss on the flagship asset) and Endomondo is shut down outright, showing that apparel brands found these data platforms easier to acquire than to operate profitably.
- If the pattern holds, sportswear companies retreat from owning consumer software platforms toward licensing data and partnering on devices — leaving standalone apps with specialist owners or private-equity backers.
The trend: Mid-2010s sportswear brands bought consumer fitness platforms as owned digital channels, then unwound them once hardware partnerships and engagement costs outpaced returns.