“Apple Inc.’s Apple Watch has been what is probably best described as a modest success. On the plus side, it has absolutely dominated the smartwatch industry, leaving casualties like Pebble in its wake,” Brad Moon writes for InvestorPlace. “Apple Watch sales have been strong enough to disrupt the entire wearable market, causing headaches for long-time leaders like Fitbit Inc.”
“When AAPL launched the Apple Watch in 2015, many analysts were predicting big numbers. Some expected Apple Watch sales for the first year could top 40 million. Apple never released official figures, but industry estimates put the actual number at 12 million,” Moon writes. “That’s better than anyone else selling a smartwatch (by a long shot), but not the kind of numbers to represent a meaningful revenue boost for AAPL.”
“The FDA just announced its new Digital Health Innovation Plan, and it could change everything. Noting that digital technologies used in consumer devices ‘have the power to transform health care,’ the agency is trying to streamline the process needed for FDA approval,” Moon writes. “In short, being able to avoid the current FDA certification and gaining medical monitoring capabilities could see the potential market for AAPL explode, with Apple Watch sales taking off.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If Apple achieves the holy grail for treating diabetes, non-invasive continuous glucose monitoring, Apple Watch would instantly become the essential device for hundreds of millions of people with diabetes.
According to the International Diabetes Federation:
SEE ALSO:
Apple appears to be working on blood glucose monitoring as a way to address Type 2 Diabetes – May 22, 2017
Apple reportedly working on incorporating blood glucose sensor into Apple Watch – May 15, 2017
Apple secret team reportedly working holy grail for treating diabetes; initially envisioned by Steve Jobs – April 12, 2017
Apple patent details Apple Watch smart bands – January 24, 2017
Emails between Apple and FDA hint at future plans – December 1, 2016
Analyst: Apple smartbands are a part of the Apple Watch’s future – April 8, 2016
Apple patent application hints at Apple Watch ‘Smartbands’ utilizing hidden 6-pin data connector – February 20, 2016
Why Apple’s iWatch won’t measure glucose levels – February 26, 2014
I’m all for greater AppleWatch sales, but surely better medical education is need to stop people getting Type2 Diabetes in the first place.
Just cut the carbs. Type 2 diabetes is simply eating too much sugary processed foods and becoming insulin resistant. Swap the carbs for fat.
People in the US know well enough what foods are unhealthy. Knowledge alone does not lead to change. Look at smoking rates: we’ve seen a decline from a focus on education but that only gets us so far. There comes a point when people cannot be protected from their own poor choices.
Another reason for Type2 diabetes is the fact that we’re in an age of marketing where selling junk to people is of high priority. Therefore, junk food and anything with massive sugar, the crap the appeals to the ignorant, are advertised to the Nth degree, fortifying the desire to have more more more.
Then add in the fact that we’ve also entered an age of cultural and financial self-destruction (active in several ways) and we find the humans in general are becoming more depressed. Associated with depression is Eating-As-Comfort. Note the use of ‘Comfort Foods’ in our modern dialog. Eat eat eat your troubles away. Again, Type-2 diabetes results.
Repair: “…the crap THAT appeals to the ignorant…”
I’m reminded that as we proceed into what I call ‘Neo-Feudalism’, with the rich screwing everyone else into poverty, people end up eating cheap poverty foods. That typically means starch and starch and starch which is all sugar when it’s broken down via digestion. Thus more Type-2 diabetes.
Overcoming all the incentives to be self-destructive and instead getting out of debt and being creative is the challenge and solution, IMHO anyway.
Of course it’s the challenge and solution, but overcoming destructive incentives requires an opposing set of incentives. For many, those opposing incentives may never materialise because even a strong personal character is not a fair match for the thundering of powerful captains of industry and their political puppets. Without a shred of help or luck to grasp onto, a thousand Edisons slip into oblivion. Pseudo-moralists sneer, “cry me a river,” and retreat to their cocoons of indifference.
I still hope out hope for a seriously educated, knowledgeable, creativity oriented USA. I’ve never liked giving in to pure cynicism. Optimism creates its own energy. Whether it goes anywhere is another matter.
No education needed. Simply monitoring serum glucose is all that is needed. Ignore the fact that iWatch won’t likely measure other parameters such a serum lipids, lipid densities, inflammatory status, etc. Nor will iWatxh interpret these data. Apple beloved that only serum glucose is important while ignoring the fact that disease is often a complex syndrome.
With Artificial Intelligence Apple Watch can monitor your food intake and spout out,”Quit shoveling pizza in your pie hole, loser, you wannt get diabetes?” or “Fer Christ’s sake, how much cake do you want to eat, ya fat slob” or “Holy Toledo, fat ass, your serum glucose is peggin gut at 400 mg/dL, would you please leave the cheese fries alone?”
Wow, this is loaded.
Did you know that if after a broad spectrum antibiotic treatment for serious infection, you can lose your digestive flora? Without those enzymes and bacteria, you cannot digest food. Did you know that if you get a transplant of those from a healthy person to rebuild and restore your gut biome, and if you have no change in diet or activity, if the donor was diabetic or obese, you will likely become one too?
Did you know that most people who are diabetic and who get a gastric bypass are off of all of their diabetes medication within hours following the surgery?
Why is this true? Because diabetes is caused by changes in the flora of our digestive system.
If the statement above was not true, fecal transplants (that is what a digestive flora transplant is called) would not give someone diabetes or make them obese – and simply bypassing part of their digestive system would not eliminate the need for diabetes treatment.
Related note: Overweight people, or those trying not to become one, frequently use sugar free products. Did you know that Aspertame (Nutra-Sweet) binds to intestinal alkaline phosphatase (IAP), effectively blocking it. What does IAP do? IAP was found to prevent the development of metabolic syndrome (obesity, high blood pressure, high triglycerides, low HDL levels, diabetes). So, sugar-free foods/beverages may actually make you fatter and less healthy. Just drink water.
What we don’t know, if/how the diet of a person changes their gut biome (part of it is grown in utero, part during vaginal delivery, and part in “life”). Millions are being spent researching that now. If rebuilding gut flora can help someone be healthier, that will solve a lot of problems, worldwide.
Humorous, but entirely the opposite of what’s required in order to incentivize healthy eating.
Positive Reinforcement is what works. Negative reinforcement engenders self-destructive behavior, which is what we’re trying to end.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinforcement#Positive_reinforcement
So, yesterday I mentioned Amazon will probably be able to delivery groceries within 1-2 hours since they now own Whole Foods. Today, I was searching the Internet for a product in my local grocery store and by coincidence discovered an app called Instacart. This app allows users to order many items found in grocery stores and have them delivered within an hour or two. So, I ordered about $50 worth of grocery items, including a sub sandwich, and received the items in a little over an hour.
While waiting for the grocery products I searched the app in greater detail and noticed their descriptions (with Publix, but not Costco) included nutrition content. Having easily accessible nutrition information will help diabetics and others make the right food choices because they now can just browse the food info from the comfort of their homes, instead of having to spend multiple hours reading food labels in the store.
To make the whole process of recording food nutrition easier, and if there is not a spectrometer (food content analyzer) in the next iPhone or Apple Watch, the items purchased via this Instacart app should automatically communicate with Apple’s health app. For example, a user might say, “Hey Siri, order a lemon pepper rotisserie chicken, mashed potatoes, baked beans and a 4-pack of toilet paper from Publix.” The user would receive the items and begin to eat. After eating the user could say, “Hey Siri, I ate one chicken breast, 1 cup of baked beans, and 1 cup of mashed potatoes. Apple’s health app would know the exact nutrition content to record because it communicates with the food delivery app. This is much simpler than manually recording the nutrition content. It is also another way to help make diabetics and others lives easier.
This is slightly off topic from the above article, but it is pertinent to Apple’s health and Siri speaker push.
I just did some research on this Instacart company. They have been expanding rapidly over the past two years or so and are currently valued at $3.5B. As of 2016, Whole Foods is a partner and investor. So, will Bezos now buy this company and shutdown the competition, or will Amazon create their own last mile delivery system?
Why should this be important for Apple? As I stated yesterday, the HomePod is going to be a tough sell if users can quickly order groceries using Alexa and have those groceries, including alcohol, delivered to their homes within an hour or two.
The other reason why this is important for Apple is if Apple decides to marry the nutrition content from this Instacart app with their health app. This would automate the recording of users’ nutrition content. If Apple partners with this grocery picker and delivery company would Amazon allow this to happen knowing Apple might integrate Siri, and by extension HomePod with this app?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-16/instacart-tries-to-hang-on-to-whole-foods-as-amazon-swoops-in
Yawn. The diehard amongst us had to have an Apple Watch. But the only empty table in an Apple Store continues to be the Watch table.
It has always been a “tryhard” product. And, let’s face it, it is ugly and cheap-looking. Especially with a white plastic strap. What were they thinking?
I don’t care what health functionality they add, it is always going to be a niche product.
Just think what they could have achieved with the Mac and Mac OS if they hadn’t wasted all that time on the silly watch. And how many users would then not have moved to Windows?