Please note that this project was completed several years ago. Today, the Expanice team creates mobile applications for IoT solutions using modern technologies like Swift, Kotlin, SwiftUI, Jetpack Compose, and Flutter.
1 Project Manager, 2 Middle mobile developers, 2 Junior mobile developers, 2 QA engineers
14 weeks /~1,000 man-hours
Fixed Price
A California-based fitness equipment company was preparing to launch a new line of smart stationary bikes for home and gym use. Each bike came equipped with speed and cadence sensors, as well as a BLE-enabled console.
To boost customer engagement and gain a competitive advantage, the client commissioned Expanice to develop minimum viable product (MVP) versions of iOS and Android apps that would connect to the bike console, display historical workout data, and enhance the training experience with social features. Our expertise in IoT solution development and wellness technology was a critical deciding factor for the customer.
The project’s ultimate goal was to develop custom BLE-connected mobile applications for iOS and Android that could:
There was one catch: the client couldn't ship a physical bike overseas, so we created a real-time simulator of the bike console to enable remote integration and testing.
The key components of the IoT fitness applications included:
It can be challenging to test IoT software without the actual device. Our team created a fully functional bike simulator that mimicked the real console's BLE communication, allowing us to completely implement and validate the app's BLE stack remotely.
This strategy also helped to reduce time to market and development costs, reinforcing a lesson we continue to communicate to other clients: begin building your mobile and embedded layers before finalizing the hardware..
The bike console only pushed data during and after the workout, so the visualization module had to be quick, clean, and easy to use for reviewing previous sessions. We implemented custom pickers for fluid toggling between dates and metrics, along with lightweight charting libraries for a smooth in-app experience even on older devices.
While the MVP focused on workout data sync and sharing, it provided the foundation for:
The client, who is extremely pleased with our approach and the delivered solution, is considering expanding the mobile applications' functionality while gathering user feedback for future enhancements.