Executive leading HealthKit, other software platforms leaves Apple

An executive hired to lead teams responsible for HealthKit, CareKit, and ResearchKit — as well as related machine learning algorithms — has left Apple after just a few months on the job, a report said on Friday.

Yoky Matsuoka was only hired in May and reported to Jeff Williams, the company's COO and its head of teams for the Apple Watch and various health initiatives, Bloomberg explained. The reason for the departure is unknown, as Apple has refused to comment and Matsuoka herself has stayed silent.

The executive is veteran of the technology industry though, with accomplishments like co-founding Google X, and helping to invent a robotic hand. Most recently she was a VP at Alphabet's Nest Labs, where she developed the technology that lets the Nest Thermostat automatically adapt to habits and conditions.

Apple has been building up its health teams for years, initially with the Apple Watch in mind, but more recently to expand its "Kit" platforms and embark in new directions. Earlier this year the company met with U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials to discuss things like "two possible (and related) products in the cardiac space" and a project involving Parkinson's disease.

Diagnosis is also thought to be a major interest of the company moving forward, with CEO Tim Cook suggesting that there should be a human equivalent of the "check oil" light on a car. Matsuoka may have been hired to help with these efforts.

96 Comments

randominternetperson 8 Years · 3101 comments

About 8 years ago

That sucks. Probably part of the AirPort staffing shakeout \s

wood1208 10 Years · 2938 comments

Irrespective of your skills, many times your style doesn't fit the culture of a company so either you leave to go find your place outside or company invite you to leave..

Hawkeye_Mo 12 Years · 18 comments

Probably enjoyed too much data freedom at her previous employers and clashed with Apple's privacy protocol...

spice-boy 8 Years · 1450 comments

sog35 said:

Do I blame her?

HELL NO.

why? Because of Tim Cook's dumb ass privacy crusade she has one hand tied behind her back.

How the hell can she do here job if Cook refuses to use the data from hundreds of millions of Apple users?

Tim Cook needs to resign. His dumb ass social, policital, and privacy crusades are hurting the company.

Apple has 500 million of the most valuable customers on the planet. Yet Cook refuses to use the data from these customers to open more revenue streams.

Cook preaches privacy, yet Google is still the default search on iOS.
Cook preaches privacy, yet 80-90% of iOS users use Facebook or Google or both.

Its beyond pathetic that Apple's competitors attack Apple's main revenue streams by bringing out hardware products.
Yet Apple refuses to fight back with their own search, social, and AI platforms.

If Cook had half a brain Apple would have developed and released a Google search competitor by now. Or a Facebook competitor. But because of Cooks dumb ass privacy crusade we see neither. And Amazon, Samsung, Microsoft, ect continue to make inroads into Apple's hardware business.

The day Apple uses my data for their profit is the day I quit using Apple products. If you want a major corporation to use your data please switch over to anything Google or Facebook.