Top fitness apps not satisfying: Study

A good number of top fitness apps scored less in consumer satisfaction, a report shows.

The inaugural "2015 State Of The U.S. Health & Fitness Apps Economy" ARC 360 report published by Applause looked at 39 health and fitness apps and 28 medical apps.

The score ranking was divided into five segments ranging from poor (0 to 39) to fair (40 to 59), and good (60 to 69) to excellent (70 to 89).

The top "winning" tier included scores of 90 and above.

Some well-known brand apps were not favourites with consumers with some being rated as fair, making them "apps customers tolerate because they serve a purpose".

Thus, Google's My Tracks scored 59, Weight Watchers Mobile 54, Fitbit and Nike Fuelband 54 and 53 respectively.

"Health and fitness brands with apps rated as fair need to expand testing out of the lab and into the real world. Winning mobile apps demand additional testing where users naturally interact with your digital experiences," said the authors of the report.

Medical software and health/fitness apps achieved an average satisfaction score of 78 and 76, respectively putting them in the excellent range.

The top three high-scoring health and fitness apps were all menstruation tracking apps, landing very near to or in the "winning" ranking category.

Four apps hit the elite level, scoring above 70 from more than 50,000 users, including FitNow's Lose It and Fitness Keeper's RunKeeper.