Apple announced its widely expected Health app at WWDC this week. While differing slightly from the rumored HealthBook app, Health serves the same purpose. Using the HealthKit APIs, developers can enable their medical or wearable device to communicate with the app. Health will then aggregate the data from a variety of devices into one unified location. The idea is that your calorie and sleep data from your FitBit will be next to your weight and MBI info from your Withings scale, which can be displayed with your iHealth glucose monitor readings. Collecting data from various 3rd party hardware is great, but one can easily see the importance of the Health app if Apple’s health-centric smart watch becomes a reality.
Expected to be announced late in 2014, Apple’s wearable device is rumored to come in several sizes and finishes and have a round form similar to the Moto 360 watch. The device is said to include a bevy of health sensors, likely including optical readers for things such as heart rate. Over the past 12 months Apple has hired an extensive team of experts specializing in health sensors, wearable devices, and luxury accessories.
