Imagine yourself 20 years from now , and require yourself the question : What was Apple ’s biggest impact on the world ? Since the issue of the prodigal Steve Jobs in 1997 , the California company has unveiled a series of founding that have heavily impact how we employ technology today .
Apple ’s influence is vast , and its gauze-like grocery superpower means it ’s a consultant to caller and regime worldwide . It has many products that have had a last impact on our life , not the least of which is theiPhoneand how it change the smartphone industry . Then there ’s the iPod andiPad , which created completely new category .
Despite all of these achiever , I think Apple ’s biggest lasting wallop is in an entirely unlike category : Apple Health . To understand why , we need to briefly seem at some key present moment in Apple ’s history that have determine its direction today .
A brief history of Apple’s devices portfolio
mean back to the first interrogation ; your mind may have directly pass over to the iPhone , or perhaps intend of the iPod bring a grinning to your face . Apple has a farseeing chronicle of create products that either overhaul entire category or create all young category of their own .
The iPhone is the best example of this . In 2007 , Apple introduced the first iPhone , and once it went on sale , it changed your smartphone incessantly . No more styluses and resistive display — hello fingers and capacitive screenland . Within a year , we had the App Store , then there was FaceTime , Siri , Touch ID , and Face ID . And then the removal of the earpiece jack .
It ’s not just the iPhone . The iPod has had a like impact and helped usher in a digital epoch for euphony , and no one has come close to duplicate the success of the iPad in the tablet space . For all these successes , there ’s one Cartesian product and expanse that no one has been able to compete with Apple . That affair is Apple Health .
All roads lead to Apple Health
Apple ’s Glowtime event in September saw many announcements . From theiPhone 16 seriesto theApple Watch Series 10and the newAirPods 4 , the company uncover a destiny of new products . It also unveil update to others , includinga young color for the Apple Watch Ultra 2 , and a single update for theAirPods Pro 2 .
In the long term , Apple ’s Glowtime event will be remembered for that single update : the AirPods Pro 2 can now carry on a clinical hearing test , and soon , they ’ll be able to act as hearing tending .
We all know people who have lost or have limited role in one or more of their senses and they all act the same way of life : at some decimal point , there ’s a disaffirmation that there ’s a problem . This is due to more than just defense of the trouble ; hearing aids are revere because they ’re ugly , expensive , and cumbrous , and no one likes survive to a doctor .
Now believe the AirPods Pro 2 . Apple has betray ten-spot of one thousand thousand of pairs of these , and we ’re all used to seeing them in multitude ’s ears . Diagnosing a hearing problem , and get a span of hearing assistance , can be thousands of dollar , but for $ 249 ( unless you grab one of thebest AirPods muckle ) , you could achieve the same affair . This will translate millions of lives overnight , and you ’re more likely to sway a friend or make love one in denial to test using their pair of AirPods .
The Apple Watch is the crown jewel in Apple Health
The AirPods Pro 2 is a dandy example of how any ware can be used to meliorate some aspect of wellness , but the crown gem in the Apple Health ecosystem is the Apple Watch . This year was the tenth day of remembrance of the first Apple Watch , and it ’s been document as save millions of life , mine include . The iPhone transfer our liveliness , but did it economize them ?
The Apple Watch is the most important equipment that Apple sells right now . Of all the product on Apple ’s shelves , it ’s the one that markedly improves your lifespan . There ’s a retinue of wellness feature film that could preserve your life history , including high and low - heart - rate notification , EKG , fall catching , and rake insistency monitoring ( at least , on senior generations ) .
There are also features that can detect AFib and other fondness condition , car clangour detection , and Sleep Apnea spotting . This latter feature is new for this year and is design to help name Sleep Apnea in the millions of undiagnosed patients globally . The Apple Health app can synchronize data to and from most fitness apps — unlike the ten thousand of equivalent apps on Android that do n’t sync to as many apps — and it can even synchronize your medical records .
The entourage of Apple Health features usable today is already implausibly solid . depend down the road for the next few year , it only stands to get good .
The future for Apple lies in Health
Smartphone sales event have stagnated over the retiring few years . Although1.14 billion smartphones were betray globally in 2023and there are still gazillion of fresh customers who are get along online for the first meter , many of these people wo n’t be able-bodied to afford an iPhone . For Apple , the iPhone is design to convey customers into its ecosystem , but there are not many places that Apple can innovate , at least until it makes a folding iPhone .
Now mean about the Apple Watch . It ’s several generation younger than the iPhone , and the entire wearable market is nascent in comparison to smartphones . Crucially , Apple still has a rife lead , with Apple Watch shipments accounting for 26 % of total wearable shipments , according to arecent study from Counterpoint .
I ca n’t tell you what long - term features Apple is work on for the iPhone , but Apple is working on several Apple Watch features that will be transformative . These admit blood pressure monitoring without a cuff and non - invasive blood glucose monitoring . Samsung and Google are both also working on these feature article , and all three fellowship are perish fountainhead - to - nous with large pharmaceutic companies in a raceway to be the first to bring these features to market .
In picky , non - invasive glucose monitoring is considered the holy grail for treating diabetes . I apply a continuous glucose admonisher that inserts a minuscule needle in my arm and transmits glucose readings to my phone . I change the sensor every 10 mean solar day and it costs hundreds of clam per calendar month for the sensor , even with a premium health insurance plan .
Like the AirPods Pro 2 and audition aids , reckon the possibility of buying a exclusive gimmick from Apple that did all of this instead . These are just two good example of many manner that Apple could become your health supplier . The company is on a journey to democratize wellness for everybody , and in doing so , its impact on our lives will grow ever stronger .
I ’m not the only one who thinks so . In late 2020,Tim Cook dive into the Apple Watchand Apple ’s approach to Health . He confirmed that the fellowship was initially surprised at how many customers called Apple Health features life - change , extend him to say : “ I do think , looking back , in the hereafter , you will answer that interrogation : Apple ’s most of import contribution to humanity has been in wellness . ”
Having already beena beneficiary of Apple Health , I ca n’t wait to see what Apple — andSamsungandGoogle — do over the next few year to keep growing the peregrine wellness space .
