With mobile capabilities allowing for personal health and fitness maintenance, leaders in this industry are making a rapid push towards mobile and wearable devices. The joining of the two parties will double the amount of tech offerings the company can provide.

?This acquisition highlights the intersection of the consumer and the patient,? said Scott Snyder, president and chief strategy officer at Mobiquity, Philadelphia. ?Healthcare can no longer wait for patients to come to them; we need to bring healthcare to patients on their terms when we still have an opportunity to help them take proactive steps, change behavior and drive better health outcomes. 

?Using consumer brands like UA and apps/devices/apparel the consumer already uses is ideal for integrating proactive health monitoring and management,? he said. ?As these consumer-friendly solutions get more sophisticated with new sensors, heart rate, pulse ox, BP, stress, etc., we will be able to do even more.?

These acquisitions, which supplement UA's existing MapMyFitness and UA RECORD suite of applications, will further enable the brand the ability to provide health and fitness data and insight. 

Powered by more than 80 million registered users, MyFitnessPal is one of the leading resources for achieving and maintaining health and fitness goals, providing nutritional information and offering caloric data associated with hundreds of exercises.

Empowering its community to make more informed healthy-living decisions, MyFitnessPal will expand the current offerings from UA Connected Fitness to include comprehensive nutrition tools, allowing users to track calories, nutrition and exercise.

?This acquisition shows that Under Armour is clearly willing to spend aggressively to establish a leadership position in the market for connected fitness experiences,? said Gene Signorini, vice president of mobile insights at Mobiquity, Boston. ?Combining social and mobile elements in addition to apparel signals that UA wants to become a true fitness lifestyle brand.?

Meanwhile, Endomondo is an open fitness tracking platform and social fitness network that connects athletes throughout the world. Utilizing GPS and other advanced technologies, Endomondo provides users with the ability to map, record and share their workouts. 

Endomondo currently hosts 20 million registered users, approximately 80 percent of which are located outside of the U.S., providing immediate scale and increased international presence for the Under Armour Connected Fitness community.   

?With a connected wellness community of 120 million users, UA is putting itself ahead of any other player in this space,? Mr. Snyder said. ?The key will be its ability to allow consumers to easily integrate and share their data with the healthcare players that can most benefit from it.  

?Getting physicians to ?prescribe? these types of solutions as part of a patients therapy or regimen will set the wheels in motion,? he said. ?Then they will achieve a huge impact.?

Under Armour began bulking up on mobile at the beginning of the year by enabling consumers to easily manage their health and activity levels via a new digital data network that syncs with the brand?s mobile application as well as third-party devices.

The sports clothing and accessories retailer launched the UA Record app to help connect customers to their digital communities and offer quick access to fitness goals, from getting a certain amount of sleep each night to burning calories through exercise. Under Armour recognized that users appreciate support when working towards physical or mental goals, prompting the brand to offer the ability to share content such as workout stories and videos within the app (see story).

Through the use of its app and the possible integration of a branded wearable, Under Armour can wear multiple hats and accomplish international scale.

?Mobile apps are just the start in terms of building and engaging a community of fitness enthusiasts,? Mr. Signorini said. ?UA clearly has its eyes set on the wearables market, and this will extend beyond wearable fitness trackers available in market today, to sensors that can be embedded in clothing and gear that provide much more detailed fitness and wellness analytics than are available now.?