It’s no secret that Apple is said to be working on entering new markets over the coming years, with CEO Tim Cook even saying as much in various interviews over the last few months. One of those new markets is believed to be health monitoring, with the rumored iWatch set to be at the center of such things. The unannounced iOS 8 has also been rumored to have a built-in app that will track a user’s health over time, but with so few concrete facts knocking around, it’s hard to predict just what is on the horizon.
With that in mind, the latest line coming out of the San Francisco Chronicle makes for particularly interesting reading, with the publication saying that it believes that not only is Apple on the verge of entering the health market, but also that of the automobile too.
On that subject of health monitoring, the Chronicle says that Apple is currently working with renowned audio engineer Tomlinson Holman, who happens to be the man behind the TXH standard amongst other highly impressive audio projects. In this particular instance, it’s believed that Holman is working on a technology that would allow Apple to monitor a user’s risk of a heart attack based solely on the sound of their blood flow. If that sounds like something from the future, then that’s probably because it is! However, Apple’s executives have already been in meetings with the US Food and Drug Administration according to reports, with the subject of Apple entering the mobile application market claimed to be on the agenda.
While the news that Apple is looking into the health market as a potential growth avenue makes a certain amount of sense, the Chronicle’s claim that it is also testing the automotive water is less obvious. Apple is already in cahoots with various car makers in order to get make its iOS-enabled devices more car-friendly, The Chronicle says that Apple’s Adrian Perica met with Tesla CEO Elon Musk around Spring time last year, though the topic of conversation is unclear. We wouldn’t expect Apple to be entering the car market as such, but closer ties with companies like Tesla would certainly make sense for both firms.
At the moment we’re more interested in the idea of health-related applications coming out of Cupertino than we are in new ways of making iPhones talk to cars. Hopefully we won’t have to wait all year before we find out where at least one of those two stories end up.
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