Roger Fingas
In a new television segment aired on Friday, Apple offered an inside look at the previously secret health and fitness testing labs for the Apple Watch, hidden inside of a rather plain looking warehouse.
In a segment on Good Morning America, ABCNews revealed that a number of Apple workers, ranging from developers and engineers to managers, were participating in tests for almost two years without knowing the purpose behind them until the Watch was unveiled. Subjects were asked to wear masks and other expensive sensor equipment while participating in activities like running and yoga.
The subjects would also wear Apple Watches, according to Apple's senior VP of Operations, Jeff Williams, but the prototype hardware would be covered up.
The company's director of Fitness and Health technologies, Jay Blahnik, said that in order to test the Watch's environmental resistance, the company brought the device to places as distant as Alaska and Dubai. But special "climate chambers" were installed in the labs as well, allowing Apple to simulate activities in extreme heat and cold.
On the scale of the project, Blahnik said that the company has amassed "what may be one of the world's largest pieces of data on fitness," and that the company's fitness efforts are just beginning. "We think there's a lot to this fitness thing...the impact on health could be profound."
Friday's report is a rare instance of Apple allowing the media inside its secret labs, where it goes to great efforts to conceal future products it is working on. In 2010, the company took media on tours of its iPhone test labs to demonstrate the efforts it goes to in order to ensure strong signal quality on its handsets.
Although the first-generation Apple Watch only has motion and heartrate sensors, some past reports have hinted that Apple was experimenting with collecting much more data, such as glucose levels. The company is believed to have abandoned less conventional sensors when they proved impractical, but it could conceivably expand tracking efforts in later devices.
Update: ABC's Nightline aired an extended version of the video, revealing that test subjects are Apple employees from various departments, including software engineering. The company has conducted 10,000 test sessions and accumulated 18,000 hours of data on a number of workouts, including outside activities like bicycling.
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43 Comments
Smart marketing move, and way ahead in physical data gathering. So looking forward to increased feedback possibilities on personal data workouts in/outside. Downside for me is I don't wear a watch. My pops does but heavy sports and exercise aren't his thing.
This is why everyone else's product will suck compared to Apple, no competitor is going to do this much testing and analysis to make sure they product works correctly and brings value to the end users. The competitor will whip out their me too solution and claim they are better without the research and development behind the product. Apple has the money to do this, the others can not afford to spend the time and money getting a product like this to market. I recognize the building they went into, it is on Bandley Dr.
People seem to say "they don't wear a watch" as though that were some sort of insurmountable barrier to buying an Apple Watch.
What Apple are clearly doing here is providing to these sorts of people some reasons why they may want to reconsider that decision - specifically in relation to fitness in this instance.
If you don't wear a watch now, you might in future wear a 'smart' one if you perceive enough benefit from the extra facilities, feedback and information that the device provides.
Personally, I'm already sold. I'm not a keep fit fanatic, but already being the owner of a Moto 360 (which, with Android Wear is rather limited) I can see the beginnings of the advantages in tracking my activity. I want to loose a bit of weight and this is giving me the nudge. I bought the '360 because I wanted it for development purposes. I'm going to buy the Apple Watch because I want the 'gold standard' in currently available wearable technology.
There's no great secret to being fit and healthy. Go for a walk each day and eat and drink in moderation. No Apple Watch required.
[quote name="pacificfilm" url="/t/185335/apple-offers-rare-look-inside-secret-apple-watch-health-and-fitness-testing-labs#post_2695598"]Smart marketing move, and way ahead in physical data gathering. So looking forward to increased feedback possibilities on personal data workouts in/outside. Downside for me is I don't wear a watch. My pops does but heavy sports and exercise aren't his thing.[/quote]Don't confuse the ?watch with what is still thought of as a 'normal' watch.