“If you’re in the business of making wearable health sensors, then I hope you’re already knocking on the Apple R&D door, because that’s where you may make your fortune, if your solution works,” Jonny Evans writes for Computerworld.
“You see, while developing the product Apple considered different sensor technologies to provide stress, heart rate and blood pressure monitors, but rejected those that didn’t perform consistently or required regulatory approval,” Evans writes. “These regulatory hurdles are a big opportunity for mHealth developers, who will be able to make good businesses out of creating HealthKit-compatible devices to perform specific functions that require such approval, making these available country by country as approval is won.”
“What that means is that you can predict a series of rapid debuts of complex personal health solutions compatible with HealthKit, iPhone and Apple Watch,” Evans writes. “Medical markets seem receptive, look at the success the company is having with HealthKit in hospitals, and note Nike’s decision to add HealthKit support to FuelBand.”
Muchad more in the full article here.
Related article:
Apple’s restraint a welcome response to digital health hype – February 18, 2015
This is part of the reason I’m going to hold off at least for the first one. I can see there being rapid improvement in what Apple Watch can do and as people start using it. Much as I’m sure I’d love it, it’s a comparatively high cost purchase to want to upgrade a year later – moreso if you buy one of the top end ones.
I think this is going to be one of the tricky things with the top end versions. If you buy a £10,000 traditional watch, you’re buying it as jewellery with the bonus that it tells the time. Barring any maintenance, whatever functionality is going to stay as useful as it ever was. With a piece of tech like this, it will still technically work, but will effectively become obsolete as updates occur and apps stop working or aren’t released.
We have to assume for a product like this, there will be an upgrade path. Especially for the “Edition” models.
“…an upgrade path”?
Unless it can be done by the user, I doubt Apple would ever consider it. No matter what ‘collection’.
As for upgrading, I have a slew of family members that just can’t wait for the next hand-me-down, just like they did for my iPhones. I would never have gotten the value by putting it up on eBay that I got passing it along.
Would you really plonk down large cash amounts without giving the cheap one a trial use ?
– even starting at version 2, i’d want to trial it.
Spending $350 and then putting it on ebay – as nearly nw, if it doesn’t impress would be a better strategy.
It doesn’t matter. It’s a computer, technology moves on and there will come a point when it won’t be updatable, security updates won’t be applied (Apple Pay perhaps a particular example) or new apps won’t run on it. If the functionality becomes compromised, then you’ve got a very expensive piece of jewellery – albeit one I doubt anyone would want to wear just as a bracelet.
Perhaps Apple will offer some sort of upgrade option, perhaps not, ultimately I think there will be a lot of questions and the market will need to shake out a bit.
Ultimately, I’d never buy such an expensive item anyway. I just get the feeling, especially if it takes off, that Apple Watch 2 will see a lot of upgrades, upgrades that might make me wish I had waited.
That’s a great rationale. I have a first generation iPod, the very first one, the white brick. Of course it’s well worn and used but I wonder if I had bought another one and kept it sealed how much it would be worth today…10 years from now.
The first generation iPhone, in shrink wrap, how much would that be worth?
Might be a market. A lot of people are collectors. Always a risk but hey what’s life without a bit of risk.
Why would you want to miss out on the first Apple Watch model unless the expenditure is a hardship? It’s fun to support the new device and evolve along with it. Much as when I spent $599 on a 2007 iPhone and had a ball and it wasn’t then nearly the device it is now. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. These new product areas just don’t come along all that often.
I’m starting with a black Apple Watch. What I don’t know about is the size to go with; 38mm or 42mm. I hate the huge ass watches on the market currently.
Well, buy the GirlyBoy 38mm one then. Your boyfriends will love it.
Wow, did you lose your gerbil sweet cheeks?
As I understand it the guts are a single sealed unit. You would expect ( hope ?) that the two more expensive versions are ‘upgradeable’ – read Apple Store replacement of internal unit.
As you say, tech is quickly out of date.
“You would expect ( hope ?) that the two more expensive versions are ‘upgradeable”
Like they do for luxury cars, boats, planes, computers, iPads, smartphones, tv’s, etc.