Written By: Nirmalya Dutta | Published : September 10, 2014 3:41 PM IST
As we waited for Tim Cook to bring forth a new era of Apple, we had high hopes that the tech giants would be entering the health and fitness industry. Expectations were high after the HealthKit announcement in June as the tech giants announced they would be entering that space. Mayo Clinic CEO had said at the Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June: 'We believe Apple's HealthKit will revolutionize how the health industry interacts with people. (The Mayo Clinic was) proud to be at the forefront of this innovative technology.'
According to the Apple website: 'The new Health app gives you an easy-to-read dashboard of your health and tness data. And we've created a new tool for developers called HealthKit, which allows all the incredible health and fitness apps to work together, and work harder, for you. It just might be the beginning of a health revolution.' There were rumours that Mayo Clinic staffers would be on hand to show some of the amazing new health features but nothing of that sort happened.
In fact, many industry insiders were of the opinion that Apple would offer something phenomenal both for the health and fitness industry. While there were random promises of improvement in health data et al, there was nothing to write home about after the live event. The Apple Watch for all its straps and sleek design seems to offer nothing new, at least nothing that hasn't been offered by its competitors till now. It lets you do things that you could do on a Pebble Steel, Moto360 or Samsung Galaxy wearable while paying extra.
Though it's indeed scary for smaller companies to know that a big player like Apple is entering the market. Runkeeper CEO Jason Jacobs told Xconomy.com that it was both exciting and scary. 'Having a company like Apple proclaim that health and fitness is an important strategic category for their business is both scary and exciting,' Jacobs said. 'Scary because it means the innovation bar is very high, but exciting because Apple commits to a category only when it is poised to become truly mainstream.'
Julie Ask, a digital health analyst with Forrester Research told the Verge: 'The Apple Watch is powerful. This does what a Fitbit or Jawbone or Nike Fuelband does, but it offers music and the apps integrated into the device. Now the consumer won't have to choose between a dedicated fitness device and the fun and utility of a smartphone on your wrist.'
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