Apple & Health

Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple is well-known as a health enthusiast. Waking up at 4 am, working out at 5 am every day before starting the day, and munching protein bars before meetings, you’ll be hard-pressed to see why Apple has a lot of emphasis on health. Even one of his inspirations is sports. As the adage goes, health is wealth.

Apple Watch

Apple Watch is the ultimate health monitor. Although the Apple Watch started as a companion device for the iPhone and as a fashion accessory. The early generation of the Apple Watch requires you to pair with an iPhone. The first generation of Apple Watch has an 18K gold version and is featured mostly in fashion magazines instead of tech magazines.

But soon, Apple saw their user base use the Apple Watch to record their runs. Apple quickly pivoted the Apple Watch from just a fashion accessory to a sports watch and later added more health monitoring features to it. Eventually, Apple added an “Ultra” version to the lineup, recognizing the needs of the users who would like a device that took the extra mile just like them.

Here are some of the health-related features that the Apple Watch poses

• Heart Rate Monitor: Monitors your heart rate periodically and warns you if your heart rate is elevated.
• ECG: The ECG tracks how your heart is beating. It is not as accurate as the one that you see in the hospital, but it can detect irregular rhythm.
• Sleep tracking: Wearing your watch while sleeping, the Apple Watch will monitor your heart rate and breathing. Newer versions can even detect if you are having sleep apnea.
• Period and pregnancy tracking: For ladies, the Apple Watch can help you track your period and pregnancy.
• Exercise Encouragement: One of the earliest features of the Apple Watch is the 3 rings that mark your daily move, stand, and calorie goals. The Apple Watch acts as the motivator to encourage you to meet those goals.
• Blood oxygen monitor: Apple added a blood oxygen monitor in the Series 6. Using a strong light and some sensor, the Apple Watch can monitor your blood oxygen levels.
• Noise monitor: Living in a noisy environment can lead to hearing loss, a condition that is untreated in the billions around the world. One contribution of the Apple Watch is it constantly monitors the sound levels in your environment and warns you if the noise levels are too high.
• Fall/Crash detection: The Apple Watch can detect if you are involved in a crash or had a hard fall, and it can automatically call emergency services. One step further, it can also inform your emergency contact list about what is going on.

With all the sensor that monitors your body function, Apple elected to put some health notifications in case the sensor detects that something is not right about your body. And such notifications do save people’s lives. So much so that Apple decided to create an ad about it

Some plans for the Apple Watch are to have glucose level monitoring and some say, cancer screening.

iPhone

Apple put a few health-related apps on the iPhone by default. The center of it is the fitness app where the app will store your health records and track your workout. Another is Mindfulness, an app that will help you meditate and be in focus.

More

Apple also provides a paid subscription to a fitness program, Fitness+ that integrates with the Fitness app. In there, you can follow professional instructors for workouts like cycling, HIIT, Yoga, Core, and many more.

The AirPods Plus can also act as a hearing test apparatus. The app is FDA-approved. Doing hearing tests every month allows you to warn if you are losing your hearing and need to see a doctor soon.

Conclusion

Apple’s focus on health in the Apple Watch is two-fold: first, it encourages a healthy lifestyle to its consumers. Another it imbues a positive experience to the consumer, and therefore Apple in general. If your device makes you healthy and on occasion actually saves your life or immediately informs your significant other about you being in danger, you can be sure Apple will have life-long customers for their devices.

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Other Ecosystem Items

• Apple TV (Amazon) / Apple TV 4K (Amazon)
• AirTags (Amazon)
• HomePod Mini (Amazon)