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I interested in how wearable companies use this. If they give up their data to Apple that removes a large barrier for users to adopt a different wearable compan

by sgarman 12y ago

I interested in how wearable companies use this. If they give up their data to Apple that removes a large barrier for users to adopt a different wearable company(or apples own product). On the other hand users might demand their current wearable product work with the health app.

neohaven 12y ago
I would be more inclined to use a product that interacts with it cleanly for specifically that reason. It just means that the quality of the hardware and software needs to be the differentiator, instead of it just being "Whoops, you're stuck in this silo now." It just seems better to me, even for the market itself.
- VLM 12y ago
  Oh you're still going to be stuck in a silo, it'll just be an Apple branded silo instead of a Runkeeper branded silo. Switch to Android? Hope you aren't keeping your insulin / blood sugar records in there.
  - dawson 12y ago
    There's nothing stopping you, or the developer of your chosen application exporting/downloading/synchronising the information from HealthKit's APIs.
arrrg 12y ago
Many health companies I have looked at have been quite liberal with their data (in the sense of allowing other apps to access it, not necessarily giving you direct access to it, e.g. the Fitbit app can access my Withings scale data despite Fitbit also selling a scale). Maybe that’s just the effect of a diverse market with no clear leaders and a natural benefit of that competition. I hope that will continue and I hope that integrating with Health Kit will be easy and straightforward. I really like that Apple hasn’t stepped in to offer some definitive hardware solution. I like this diverse market and I don’t necessarily think Apple should try that on their own. They seem quite intent on letting the market figure that out and letting others integrate nicely. I also hope that Apple keeps steady with that, even if they start selling their own wearables (though I think that’s less likely now). I mean, I assume this will be able to integrate with dedicated step counters, so the fact that newer iPhones have their own step counter built in didn’t lead Apple to prevent others from integrating – which is a somewhat promising sign.

by sgarman 12y ago

neohaven 12y ago

I would be more inclined to use a product that interacts with it cleanly for specifically that reason. It just means that the quality of the hardware and software needs to be the differentiator, instead of it just being "Whoops, you're stuck in this silo now." It just seems better to me, even for the market itself.

VLM 12y ago
Oh you're still going to be stuck in a silo, it'll just be an Apple branded silo instead of a Runkeeper branded silo. Switch to Android? Hope you aren't keeping your insulin / blood sugar records in there.
- dawson 12y ago
  There's nothing stopping you, or the developer of your chosen application exporting/downloading/synchronising the information from HealthKit's APIs.

arrrg 12y ago

Many health companies I have looked at have been quite liberal with their data (in the sense of allowing other apps to access it, not necessarily giving you direct access to it, e.g. the Fitbit app can access my Withings scale data despite Fitbit also selling a scale). Maybe that’s just the effect of a diverse market with no clear leaders and a natural benefit of that competition. I hope that will continue and I hope that integrating with Health Kit will be easy and straightforward. I really like that Apple hasn’t stepped in to offer some definitive hardware solution. I like this diverse market and I don’t necessarily think Apple should try that on their own. They seem quite intent on letting the market figure that out and letting others integrate nicely. I also hope that Apple keeps steady with that, even if they start selling their own wearables (though I think that’s less likely now). I mean, I assume this will be able to integrate with dedicated step counters, so the fact that newer iPhones have their own step counter built in didn’t lead Apple to prevent others from integrating – which is a somewhat promising sign.