An open secret at Peloton is that they have new products coming down the pipeline – these include both a smaller, lower cost treadmill as well as a brand new product, a Peloton rower. Peloton executives openly discuss their plans to have a lower cost treadmill during investor calls. While no executive has stated the words “Peloton Rower” yet, several leaks have indicated this, as well as news coming out that Tonic Fitness Technology, one of Peloton’s manufacturing partners who they ended up purchasing, has been granted several patents related to rowing devices.
Earlier this year, Peloton had filed an FCC application for a new generation Peloton touch screen tablet. This was expected to be the monitor that came on both the new version of the treadmill and the rower. Confidentiality rules meant that it would become public within 180 days of the patent application being filed – or by July 6th, 2020. Initial speculation in 2020 had been that an announcement of one, or both of the products might come at CES 2020 (where the original Tread was announced). Once that didn’t happen, rumors pointed towards Peloton doing so at Peloton Homecoming, or once that was cancelled, as part of the keynote talk during the “Together We Go Far” virtual weekend – but no product announcements were made or even teased. This week, Peloton quietly filed a new letter with the FCC requesting their patent application be dismissed. In the letter, they state that “Due to the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic, we have adjusted some of our product timelines.” The text of the letter is as follows:
Date: 2020-05-28
Re: Dismissal request for FCC ID: 2AA3N-TTR01; Granted on 01/06/2020
To Whom It May Concern:
Due to the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic, we have adjusted some of our product timelines. As a result, we are requesting a grant dismissal for FCC ID: 2AA3N-TTR01 in order to maintain confidentiality of documents covered under the short-term confidentiality period.
We, Peloton Interactive Inc., hereby declare that no product bearing the FCC ID: 2AA3N-TTR01 has been marketed in the United States or anywhere else in the world. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. Thank you.
Sincerely yours,
Name: Tom Cortese
Title: COO
At this point, there isn’t a clear indication if Peloton hopes to make new product announcements in the Fall/Winter of 2020, or if these launches will be delayed all the way into 2021 or later. Statements made on investor calls indicate that Peloton wants all, or most, of their showrooms to be open before any new product announcements are made, as they feel members having the ability to go into showrooms to physically try out new products is a big help.
Additionally, Peloton probably won’t launch any new products with the current delivery situation they find theirselves in. People ordering new bikes find themselves with 2+ month wait times. Peloton has stated that this backlog isn’t due to having enough delivery trucks or drivers – but instead, the backlog is due to manufacturing and production pipelines, caused by the surge in new orders that have happened during quarantine. Delivery teams also remain unable to enter customer’s households – instead just doing “threshold deliveries”. Peloton Treads sales remain paused, with no deliveries happening at all. With a brand new product like the rower, it is expected Peloton would want to be able to enter the customer’s homes to fully set up the new product, in order to ensure a more seamless setup. And although the new generation Peloton Treadmill would be smaller, it is likely still large or heavy enough that Peloton would not want customers responsible for getting it from their doorstep to whatever space it will be set up in.
You can be sure we’ll provide updates with any new timelines about when the updated announcement dates might be for the Peloton Rower and Generation 2 Peloton Tread as we hear them.
Want to be sure to never miss any news? Sign up for our newsletter and get all the latest news sent directly to your inbox.