Apple is poised to launch a body-monitoring app known as Healthbook, tracking everything from sleep to nutrition to exercise to vital signs.
That's the word from 9-to-5 Mac, which published a detailed look at the app on Monday, and as described, this project could prove to be a tipping point for mobile healthcare -- a computing sector that has long been on the brink of explosive popularity without actually breaking through.
According to the 9-to-5 Mac rundown, Apple Healthbook is an incredibly broad undertaking. It's designed to track your blood sugar, heart rate, breathing rate, weight, hydration, and physical movements. It even tracks health tests. Pundits are already speculating that it will be a key selling point for Apple's forthcoming iOS 8 mobile operating system or its long-rumored "iWatch" smartwatch or both. We know that Apple has hired fitness guru Jay Blahnik and various engineers with medical sensor experience, which would indicate the company is preparing some sort of wearable health monitoring device.
Health and fitness apps have become increasingly prevalent in recent years. One company, Azumio, now offers 40 health monitoring and fitness apps for the Apple iPhone alone. PayPal co-founder Max Levchin is pushing Glow, an app designed to help couples get pregnant. And HealthTap provides a clever and carefully curated medical question-and-answer system that brokers online sessions with doctors. Systems like these can significantly reduce healthcare costs, and many health providers are interested in subsidizing their deployment and use.
Apple Healthbook may compete with existing healthcare apps, but it also could help them flourish. As 9-to-5 Mac points out, it could serve as a unified interface to health and fitness apps in the same way that Apple's Passbook app helps you juggle airline boarding passes, tickets, and gift cards from a wide range of apps. And as noted by venture capitalist MG Siegler, Healthbook could encourage Apple to build more bridges between its devices and third-party sensors, making it easier to find, say, a high-end heart-rate monitor that works with your iPhone.
Finally and most significantly, an Apple healthcare app would be a validation of the utility of all health and fitness apps. Just as Facebook's success helped fuel the success of more specialized social networks -- including LinkedIn, Polyvore, and Nextdoor -- Apple's entry into the "quantified self" movement introduces the masses to ideas that can help them understand other, more specialized products in the same space. In other words, Apple Healthbook won't just promote the fitness of iPhone users. It will boost the well being of an entire ecosystem of healthcare technology companies.
