Bryan O'Rourke

If you're in the fitness or health club industry it might be easy to forget about the world of the digital revolution going on outside. This week there are a few reasons you might want to pay closer attention. Yesterday WSJ reporter Ian Sherr had this to say in the article, Cloud Floats Closer To Consumers:

Two technology conferences this week in typically sunny California will focus on bringing the cloud to consumer computers. On Monday, Apple Inc. is expected to use its annual developers gathering in San Francisco to unveil a streaming-music service. The product will likely allow gadget owners to mirror their music libraries at Apple's data centers and access them via the Internet, a paradigm known as cloud computing. The service, which Chief Executive Steve Jobs is expected to unveil with the company's new iCloud Internet services, could eliminate the need for consumers to use up chunks of storage on their iPhones.

Here is a blow by blow of the Apple release of iCloud and its new operating system, among other software improvements. The other conference Sherr refers to is All Things Digital (aka allthingsd). Check out the video content here and see Sherr's overview of the Apple announcements below.

So, what might you ask does this mean for health clubs and the fitness industry in general ? Most experts might not be certain. I propose this will be the affect: more savvy consumers with increasing options for engagement and higher expectations in all categories including fitness and health clubs. Yikes you say ! What has happened to retail and entertainment is going to increasingly happen in fitness and its bricks and mortar delivery system - health clubs. Apples announcements and the allthingsd conference only reinforce these trends.

Welcome to the cloud and these and other revelations in the year to come will only make the health club and fitness industry more innovative and open to opportunities and tremendous risks.

So what do you think of Apple's new iCloud service and software releases ? Have you checked out the allthingsd video content from some of the leaders of the digital revolution? Please let me, Bryan O'Rourke, know your thoughts.