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Apple planning App Store-like health platform for connected medical devices - report

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Apple's decision to enter the "quantified self" race reportedly will not end with a so-called "iWatch," as the company is thought to be considering the creation of a centralized tracking platform for health and fitness devices similar to the iOS App Store.

While wearable biometric devices are believed to be Apple's immediate interest, some suspect that a new platform is the company's longer-term play. "There's no doubt that Apple is sniffing around this area," health technology expert Ted Driscoll told Reuters.

Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple has hired a number of biomedical sensor experts in recent months, moves that Rock Health executive Malay Gandhi told the publication are indicative of "a very specific play in the bio-sensing space." They include the fitness expert behind Nike's FuelBand, a healthcare privacy expert, and various scientists with expertise in non-invasive blood glucose monitoring and pulse oximetry.

Many of those hires are said to have joined the company with little idea of what they would ultimately be working on, a sign that Apple may be trying to build a health-focused unit more broad than previously anticipated.

"Some of the talent (Apple recruited) has access to deep wells of trade secrets and information," pulse oximetry firm Masimo's CEO Joe Kiani said, adding that Apple is "just buying people" with large compensation packages. Masimo's former research director is among those who have moved to Cupertino in recent months.

Apple already enables step-counting and other motion-related applications through its custom M7 coprocessor found in the A7 CPU that drives the iPhone 5s. But with this year's anticipated launch of iOS 8, Apple has been rumored to delve even further into the health and fitness market.

In particular, it's been said that a key feature of iOS 8 may be a so-called "Healthbook" application that would act as a central point for users to measure and track health-related data on their iPhone. This application might interface with a variety of wearable and connected devices that could track information such as weight, heart rate, blood pressure and more.

35 Comments

MacPro 19 Years · 19862 comments

So Samsung, FaceBook, Microsoft, Twitter and Google don't have long to pre-emtivly launch their own before Apple. It must be hell out there ....

timbit 13 Years · 330 comments

Many doctor's offices and hospitals use Macs for computing and inputting data. Having an App Store section with various third party device hookups could be a big sell.

revenant 16 Years · 610 comments

Quote:
Originally Posted by digitalclips 

So Samsung, FaceBook, Microsoft, Twitter and Google don't have long to pre-emtivly launch their own before Apple. It must be hell out there ....

well, samsung can just copy it and make a few billion and pay a hundred million dollar fine.  

 

so... no sweat.  thanks, apple, for paving the road to easy money.

pmz 16 Years · 3429 comments

Quote:
Originally Posted by revenant 
 

well, samsung can just copy it and make a few billion and pay a hundred million dollar fine.  

 

so... no sweat.  thanks, apple, for paving the road to easy money.

 

Innovators world wide should take notice and realize that nothing is protected anymore. Even billion dollar ideas can be stolen, and no appropriate punishment will ever be dished out.

rogifan 14 Years · 10667 comments

[quote name="digitalclips" url="/t/179056/apple-planning-app-store-like-health-platform-for-connected-medical-devices-report#post_2527538"]So Samsung, FaceBook, Microsoft, Twitter and Google don't have long to pre-emtivly launch their own before Apple. It must be hell out there ....[/quote] Just this morning on CNBC they were talking about Google and Amazon jumping into the home delivery service just because they have a lot of money and can afford to do so. It amazes me how much hate Apple gets when other companies are much more ruthless than they are. I keep waiting for the day it all comes back to bite them but Wall Street seems to be eating it up,