Apple Said to Develop App Store-like Health and Fitness Platform

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Apple could develop a health and fitness services platform based on the successful App Store, sources speaking with Reuters reveal. This would allow the med-tech community startups to develop their own software and hardware mobile medical applications.

One mobile health executive, who asked not to be named, told Reuters he recently sat down with an Apple executive from the iWatch team. He said the company has aspirations beyond wearable devices, and is considering a full health and fitness services platform modeled on its apps store.

Apple spokesperson Steve Dowling declined to comment on the company’s health-tech plans or its recent hires.

The med-tech community is betting on Apple to develop the apps-store style platform so startups can develop their own software and hardware mobile medical applications.

Fact is, Apple is building a team of senior medical technology executives, which has triggered whispers in the tech world about the forthcoming iWatch and its possible features. The speculation comes hot on the heels of the hirings, which were concentrated around the sensor technology, an area Tim Cook said last year would explode.

What the multiple voices seem to corroborate is the Healthbook application, which is said to contain health-related data with the input coming from a variety of devices. If the Healthbook app rumours are true, this is something the tech-med community is betting on: and this is also Apple’s entry card to the $3 trillion health care market.

A company that could easily benefit from such a platform is Nike, which has recently scaled back its work on Fuelband to focus on software, and its chief executive emphasized the company’s long-term partnership.

Rumours about the Apple smartwatch have been around for quite some time, but this year Tim Cook has spilled gas on the fire, claiming the company is closer than ever to releasing new product categories.

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