Google And Apple Fight For Your Health
Google is set to announce 'Google Fit', a cloud-based technology that will allow multiple inputs about the health and exercise of a user to be collected for archiving, analysis, and aggregation back to the user’s personal devices. Set for launch at Google’s I/O conference, the 'Google Fit' has been developed for quite some time now so Apple's recently announced 'HealthKit' framework or Samsung’s SAMI products should be considered as responses to Google's health plans.
According to a Forbes report, Google Fit will aggregate data through open APIs, so Google will announce partnerships with wearable device makers at its I/O conference. One source with knowledge of Google’s plans said Google Fit would allow a wearable device that measures data like steps or heart rate to interface with Google’s cloud-based services, and become part of the Google Fit ecosystem.
It’s unclear if Google Fit will be a service build into the next version of Android, or a standalone app that Android users will be able to download independently. But Google will most probably tie the new health platform to with Android Wear, a version of Google’s Android mobile operating system that’s built for smart watches and other wearable devices.
Microsoft is also getting in the game later this year with its own smart watch that measures continuous heart rate. The company already owns HealthVault, a web-based platform launched in 2010 to store health and fitness information
It looks like the major mobile manufacturers have all settled on health as the next big area to do battle with on the smartphone fields of war. They have left the competition on the hardware specs aaside, and are focusing on the value of the software (apps).
But creating health platforms that aggregate consumers' sensitive personal health records has raised privacy concerns. In addition, offering healt-related feedback to consumers could be risky since they would not go through a FDA-regulated diagnosis first.