“Apple has been developing a sensor-laden, fitness- and medical-focused wearable computer as indicated by several notable recent hires and information we have received from sources,” Mark Gurman reports for 9to5Mac.
“New Apple hires on both the senior executive and standard engineering levels have expertise in fashion, wearable product industrial design, retail, blood-reading sensors, medical device product management, hardware engineering, software vision, and fitness,” Gurman reports. “As the rumored launch of the “iWatch” approaches, we have compiled an up-to-date list (into categories of leadership, fashion, fitness, and health) of all known and pertinent recent Apple hires to provide a clearer picture of what Apple’s future wearable technologies could offer to consumers.”
Read more in the full article here.
I hate to be the one to say it but this is the exact same list reported by 9to5mac in February http://9to5mac.com/2013/07/18/apple-stacks-iwatch-team-with-sensor-fitness-experts/
Yeah, AI kinda ripped it off.
But still, it’s a potent reminder for all the people out there who say that Apple doesn’t have any big plans/aspirations. Clearly, they’re cooking something up with this roster of hires.
It could simply be that they hired all these people to help build their rumored “Healthbook” platform. All of these people have deep industry contacts and knowledge and could very well be an “inside” into the industry to develop working relationships with other researchers and manufacturers.
Even if all Apple did was just release a new iOS based, health-related platform it could spark tremendous growth in the sensor/wearables market. Having a core them such as this, could guarantee that iOS remains a significant part of that market and doesn’t get left behind.
Apple doesn’t have to make and sell all these devices themselves. What they really need to do is develop and create a platform that industries want to support – and absolutely need to support.
If that means releasing a “wearable” to show the rest of the industry that people are interested when it’s done right, then that’s what they’ll do.
And if Apple creates a whole new platform, a whole new standard that biosensors and medical professionals are willing to buy into … “Apple can’t innovate, my ass!”
AppleOutsider?
We need alternative sources, you call yourself 9to5Mac but actually you are 9to5MacAndGoogleAndProbablyMicrosoftAndWhateverElse. How much of the 9to5 Mac actually gets must be a small fraction of that 8 hours.