Shane Cole
With speculation of a so-called "iWatch" reaching frenzied proportions, a new Apple employment advertisement seeking a product development-focused exercise physiologist has added weight to the theory that the device would feature a focus on fitness.
Update: Apple has since removed the job listing from its website.
Apple is looking for a "detail & execution oriented, meticulous, highly organized" exercise physiologist to help the company study the physiological effects of exercise on users, according to an advertisement posted to Apple's employment portal Thursday morning.
Design and run user studies related to cardiovascular fitness & energy expenditure, including calories burned, metabolic rate, aerobic fitness level measurement/tracking and other key physiological measurements.Candidate will be knowledgeable about the physiological effects being measured and how to avoid potential inaccuracy and experimental error due DOE flaws and/or reference monitor (i.e. metabolic cart, etc.) usage issues.
The role will need to apply relevant knowledge to the design of products and their testing/validation through user studies.
The winning candidate will "design and run user studies related to cardiovascular fitness & energy expenditure, including calories burned, metabolic rate, aerobic fitness level measurement/tracking and other key physiological measurements," the posting reads.
Interested applicants need a broad understanding of tools used to monitor and measure physiological data, as well as experience with indirect calorimetry to measure how much energy people expend while exercising.
While Apple is known to offer extensive health benefits to its employees — including on-site workout facilities and personal training options — the new position will be focused on running studies that will be used to develop new products, according to the posting.
That matches up with speculation that the still-unannounced iWatch will be centered around biometrics and fitness tracking. Noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo was first to raise that theory, and Apple has backed it up with a string of hires in the fitness and medical sensor fields including Nike FuelBand consultant and fitness expert Jay Blahnik and, most recently, former Philips sleep researcher Dr. Roy J.E.M. Raymann.
Sponsored Content
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
Amber Neely
25 Comments
I think that there is a lot of overlap between fitness buffs (no pun intended) and Apple's target demographic. It makes sense that any limited-function device from Apple might target them.
Has anybody considered that Apple might be making a range of different wristbands, hoping to sell multiple special use models to the same customers? There could be a sports model for the gym with fitness sensors, a more elegant looking one to wear for business with easy to use silent alarm features, one for weekends or kids with social ad other media front and center, etc.
"Frenzied" ... "noted analyst" ... lol.
Steve's personal interests were centered around music. That gave us the iPod and iTunes.
Tim is a fitness buff, so its no surprise that that's where he'll be showing interest.
The biggest issue to me is that the music industry has shrunk not because of Apple, but because of the reduced interest in buying music by the baby boom... the proverbial 'pig in the python'.
Guess where that demo is focused now? On making the last years as healthy as possible.
I've always thought that focus on the 18-35 demo is silly. Unless your tactic is to separate naive kids from their money, the big money is still in the boomers.
Samsung's R&D department located at 1 Infinity Loop in Cupertino is really paying off for them. :)
I still say iWatch needs to also be a music playing iPod-killer with bundled wireless EarPods to be ultimate dedicated fitness devices product. If it had the following features it would deserve to exist, because it would be a genuine upgrade from a regular watch. As opposed to a notification gimmick for geeks that also happens to tell the time. Great hardware design, software interface and user-experience. GPS. Pedometer. Blood oxygen. Jogging/cycling exercise route memory. Time and date. iPhone notifications. Sleep activity monitor. Magnetic inductive charging dock for watch and headphones. Wireless EarPods + full iPod app. Up to 7-day battery life when not playing music. Even at an initial cost of between $249 and $349, I believe such a product would sell pretty well and be a good money-maker for Apple. Eventually replacing probably several of Apple iPod products.