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Cape Town - Samsung is hoping to push South Africans to do more exercise with a Discovery Vitality partnership.
The deal will see Discovery Vitality members earn points for physical activity tracked through the S Health application on the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge.
"The best thing about this partnership is that through our S Health app, users are rewarded not just for participating in exercise regimes such as going to the gym, but also for being active through everyday activities such as walking the dog and taking the stairs - all of which will help to accumulate Vitality points," said Craige Fleischer, Director of Integrated Mobility at Samsung Electronics South Africa.
The Galaxy S and Gear S smart watch provide constant monitoring of steps and activity native applications that work in concert with your weight and key BMI metric.
The application calculates your fitness goals and reminds you to remain active throughout the day.
Discounts
To qualify, you have to download the Discovery application which links to your Samsung smartphone and the points are added automatically.
The Galaxy Gear S monitors activity when linked to a Samsung smartphone. (Duncan Alfreds, Fin24)
If you walk between 5 000 and 7 499 steps per day, you could earn 50 points, but more than 12 500 steps will earn you 200 points.
Discovery encourages healthy living by rewarding members for not smoking, low blood glucose and cholesterol levels, as well having regular doctor's checkups.
Points can result in discounts or cash back bonuses from Discovery partners though in many cases, the size of the discount depends on the Vitality status. You need 45 000 points to attain Gold Vitality status.
The deal with Discovery may also help Samsung boost sales of the Galaxy S6 which retails for R10 909 or R479 per month from Vodacom.
The South Korean company has been hit with an 8% profit decline due to soft sales of the latest device and hinted that it may drop the price as part of a strategy to boost sales.
"While the IT & Mobile Communications (IM) Division is expected to face a difficult business environment, the sales momentum for high-end products will be maintained by adjusting the price of the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge and introducing new premium smartphone models," Samsung said in its earnings report.
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