Apple Reportedly Developing New Health-Centric Device
By Jof Enriquez,
Follow me on Twitter @jofenriq
Apple reportedly is building a new health-focused device, other than the company's Apple Watch, which already features sensors capable of collecting basic health data.
The "killer new product" will "accurately collect users' personal daily life including heart rate, pulse, blood sugar changes and other information," according to Taiwan's Economic Daily News (via Apple Insider).
Apple's laboratories are said to have been working on the product for two years now, and the company is apparently working with suppliers Foxconn, TPK, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Zhen Ding Technology, and others.
The report contains no details about the form factor of the product, although it could feature Apple's pressure-sensing 3D Touch technology, found in the iPhone6s. It could be a first-generation device distinct from the Apple Watch, according to Apple Insider.
Apple CEO Tim Cook, in an interview with The Telegraph last year, hinted that the company does not intend to put the Apple Watch under Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scrutiny, but added that he "wouldn’t mind putting something adjacent to the watch through it, but not the watch, because it would hold us back from innovating too much, the cycles are too long. But you can begin to envision other things that might be adjacent to it -- maybe an app, maybe something else.”
The report out of Taiwan is just the latest to speculate on what could be Apple's next device. A patent filing published last year revealed a ring-like wearable laden with optical, tactile, and biometric sensors, with functionality similar to that of the Apple Watch. Apple also could be looking to leverage the Apple Watch's sensor technology into an emergency alert system, as suggested by another patent filing.
Despite being unregulated, the Apple Watch is already being used in studies to collect data health data through apps that link to Apples' data platforms: ResearchKit, HealthKit, and CareKit. Apple's recent hiring of top scientists and executives for its healthcare initiatives also hints of grander plans.
"We’ve gotten into the health arena and we started looking at wellness, that took us to pulling a string to thinking about research, pulling that string a little further took us to some patient-care stuff, and that pulled a string that’s taking us into some other stuff,” Cook said in a recent interview with Fast Company.