Data, can you achieve a wearable brilliance?

According to foreign media reports, as Apple's official launch next spring on Apple Watch, people around the world will want to know what this high-profile and Long-lost smart watch can bring-what is the difference between the feelings of wearing it? How does it affect people's lives? However, when all the focus is on the consumer side, we are likely to miss a more important question: what is the value of the data that Apple watch and its competing products have gathered?

Portable devices are now providing real-time health monitoring in new ways, such as using sensors to detect body temperatures, heartbeat frequencies, and respiratory frequencies--such smart-wear device makers believe that by gathering the biometric information they will eventually find a way to help make a profit.

But here's a little bit of a problem: According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey, one-third of wearable devices usually give up after a year to continue using the product. And if consumers stop wearing these devices, the data collected by their producers will no longer have any real meaning.

There are also questions about privacy. But the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) does not apply to user data collected through wearable devices, which only protects medical records and health data for patients.

As a result, the collection and sale of collected user data has suddenly become a vibrant industry, even the emergence of hackers to the underground industry chain.

To clear these hurdles, Apple's strategy for wearing equipment must go far ahead of the single product of Apple Watch. HealthKit official Apple faces the answer to this question. The data platform was launched with the official release of the iOS 8 operating system.

HealthKit can be seen as a central nervous system that allows different equipment and application manufacturers to share data on this platform to help inspire new markets and uses. For example, the heart rate data collected through smart watches can be combined with breathing frequency data collected through smart shirts to alert medical personnel in time for a heart attack or stroke.

This combination of data is almost limitless because HealthKit has a management system similar to the App Store to ensure that no user data is sold at high prices, and that the platform will one day be for surgeons, paramedics, medical institutions and personal trainers, Provide a comprehensive fitness and health report for a user.

Apple is already moving in this direction. The company cooperates with the Mayo Clinic and the United States ' leading electronic health data service, epic Bae, to ensure that users ' data are delivered to doctors in a timely manner.

Apple is not the only company that is committed to combining fitness data with medical services. Google also posted Google Fit earlier this month, a composite platform for assembling Android data. Samsung, which has released a variety of galaxy wear devices, has earlier launched a cloud-based Sami platform to help developers analyze sensor data in depth.

But regardless of which platform, its purpose is the same, namely: the collection of user data into the hands of competent people or enterprises to create more valuable applications. The new services provided by data collection agencies, such as medical advisory services, fitness guidance services and weight-loss training services, will help to drive the development of the wearable equipment market. According to IDC, a market-research firm, the number of wearable equipment shipments will reach 130 million by 2018, and the market will reach 6 billion dollars.

"Service is the cornerstone." "Health and welfare providers are active in contacting us and want to integrate our equipment into their services to enhance incentives and deliver better returns," said Alexis Normand Alexis Normand, head of the Withings Healthcare division, a French wearable equipment producer. ”

Withings is a company that produces sports tracking equipment, and its products include intelligent weight gauges and sleep-tracking mattresses. The company is a handful of wearable equipment manufacturers that maintain long-term partnerships with big business and corporate employee health programs. Employees at MIT, United Healthcare, Palo Alto Jude Foundation and many other companies are using Withings products and software to track their health in real time.

Corporate employee health programs such as Shapeup and the Vitality group also use data from Withings devices. Now, as markets generally think the age of wearing equipment is coming, surgeons and other professionals are starting to consider using collected health data to help make a profit.

"I think it's a huge leap towards universal health care," he said. "Julia Hu (Julia Hu), chief executive officer of Fitness guidance Application Lark said. Lark was originally a wearable device developer, but then the company realized that its software provided services that were of great value not only to its users but also to users of other products. So Lark gave up the development of hardware, in turn to their own services and Apple HealthKit to combine to provide better fitness advice for users.

"You go to a doctor, a fitness instructor, or a therapist once a week or every year." "But it usually takes a while to deal with them, but the advice they give you takes 24 hours to notice." The Health data platform is the key to changing this phenomenon. It provides you with a ubiquitous, preventable health advice that you can see every day. ”

Even big companies like Nike are no longer focused on wearable hardware. Earlier this year, Nike announced that it would stop developing its FuelBand smart wrist strap. At the same time, Nike Fitness guidance data platform to obtain more resources to accelerate development. With Apple Watch and HealthKit, Nike believes it will be able to sell more sneakers and apparel products and collect more data to further refine its Nike service.

"Technically, we (Apple and Nike) can do things together that we can't do alone," he said. "This is part of our plan," said Nike CEO Parker, in a Bloomberg interview last month. "We're going to expand the digital frontier and Nike the user base from the current 25 million to hundreds of millions of." ”

Aside from all these promises, medical professionals point out that the industry as a whole is still trying to find an exploratory phase that can make good use of the data.

"There is a general perception that the bigger the data, the better." But this conclusion is not quite certain. Blaine Lin Bryant Lin, a surgeon and associate professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. Lin provides consulting services for wearable equipment manufacturer Ihealth, the company's main product for diabetes surveillance equipment. "We want to see evidence so we don't end up saying, ' We have all the data, but the results are no different," he said. ’”

But even so, the data collected by wearable devices still provide a more profound basis for the diagnosis of patients with chronic symptoms, such as hypertension. Patients often show Dr Lam the data collected or collected by other equipment.

"I can see the trend line, see if the patient is under control, and whether there is a need to change the medical plan." Lin says.

The next step, Lin believes, is to standardize the data collected and act as part of an electronic medical record--one of Apple's ongoing initiatives with epic BAE. This change can help doctors to treat patients and help medical researchers identify larger trends, Lin said.

In fact, there are reasons to be puzzled about when, where, and why the wearer collects personal data and holds questions about it. We can see that the data used for medical research is not personally identifiable information, while the share of user identity information in medical insurance companies can be controlled by a personal privacy management system like HealthKit. However, it is necessary to point out that as long as the legal level does not follow up the development of new technologies in a timely manner, wearable equipment may leak the user's biological information sensitive data is always there.

"I think we're going to see a process like a more transparent evolution, especially as consumers become more aware of the value of data," he said. "said Luis Rincon, founder and CEO of Wearables.com, a market-research agency Louise Linkang. Until then, the only advice for those who are wary of personal health data being leaked by smart devices is: don't wear them.

So, as markets begin to tilt toward health services, what will be the change for leading wearable equipment manufacturers? such as Fitbit and Jawbone.

Fitbit no comment. The only clue the company has given is its refusal to integrate Apple HealthKit into its products.

Fitbit is likely to launch its own data platform, or not rely on the platform, completely dependent on independent products and software to maintain operations. At present, the company has launched the Fitbit Premium service, the service is similar to a virtual personal fitness trainer, the annual subscription fee of 50 dollars.

Fitbit Premium services are based solely on data collected by their own Fitbit, but the company will soon unveil products such as surge smart watches with new sensors. So the future Fitbit will make a change, the company has not given an official reply.

Jawbone is the official partner of Apple HealthKit. The company is now positioned more like a service provider than a hardware manufacturer. In September this year, Jawbone opened the software platform to all smartphones and wearable devices, which are connected to Apple Tiyatien applications, while Android Wear systems and Pebble smart watch devices can take advantage of Jawbone platforms.

"Our goal is not to win a hardware product design, or to make hardware sales higher than our opponents." "By opening our systems, we can continue to embrace the innovations of other manufacturers and build stronger communities," Travis Bergard Travis Bogard, vice president of Jawbone Product management, said in September. ”

The timing of Jawbone's choice is just right.

"The unfortunate thing is to be a pure hardware developer who does not provide a service or data warehouse. "Mayfield Fund venture capitalists, wear Equipment Manufacturers Foundation Science co-founder Tim Zhang (Tim Chang) said. The basis science company received an investment of $100 million from Intel earlier this year.

"Without a service, you might as well leave this game of competition." "Tim Zhang said. (Compile/Lu Xin)

(Responsible editor: Mengyishan)