In case you’re living in a hole, or at least have too busy to check it out, here’s the Apple iWatch trailer which outlines the soon to be released Apple smartwatch.
I haven’t worn a watch in years, so it’s hard for me to imagine me wearing one of these. Although, I’ve worn watches in the past and so I’d like to try it. The commercials I’ve seen for the iWatch are pretty compelling, but what I can’t tell is how much of that is “great advertising” and how much of that is “I really need this product.”
Now to the title of this article. Will the iWatch change the game in healthcare? My answer is no. Besides the fact that Apple has sucked out a lot of the mHealth related functionality, I just don’t think that enough people are going to buy and wear them for it to really change healthcare. Plus, I don’t think the fact that it’s a watch on your wrist as opposed to a phone in your pocket is going to be able to provide that much added functionality.
What I do think the Apple iWatch will do is help to push forward how we look at how we interface with our phone and the data that’s available to us. I think that’s a great thing and something we’ll all benefit from across a wide variety of devices and interfaces which are to come.
So, I don’t think that the Apple iWatch is going to revolutionize healthcare, but it is a nice step forward in new interfaces that will be one of many interfaces we use to access our health data and communicate with our various care providers.
What do you think? Will the Apple iWatch have more or less impact on healthcare than what I describe?