Hardware is no longer a priority software into the king

July 23, health and fitness market is increasingly hot, Nike, Jawbone and Fitbit have introduced the relevant wearable devices, but with the advent of Apple and Google, the market is rapidly changing. Hardware is no longer an advantage, especially tracking of heart rate, blood pressure and other functions as a smart machine standard, the software platform will become the hub responsible for managing, analyzing and sharing data. More importantly, in areas with exceptionally strict regulation, Apple and Google can win the trust of doctors by virtue of their strength and fame, which is beyond the reach of start-ups.

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Mike Dittenber, a technology journalist, has been hoping to play skydiving but has been unable to do so. "The only problem I have is my weight of 150kg, which exceeds the weight limit required for parachuting," he said helplessly. "Having seen the doctor last spring, I got more bad news: I was at the threshold of diabetes and high blood pressure Line. "Di Tanbo doctor warned that if you can not quickly control the weight, he would have to accept medication.

"It sounded a wake-up call for me," Di Tanbo said.

Di Tambo had previously tried to lose weight center, this is down for a while, but did not last long. Eventually, he decided to use MyFitnessPal, a smart app that helps users track calorie intake and fitness. "I also bought a treadmill for use with MyFitnessPal," he said. "I do not hate running, I can not really like it, but I can accept it." In addition, Titan also purchased the Runkeeper app and Garmin Forerunner 220 is used to track running distance and calculate the appropriate speed. Since starting use of these devices in June 2013 and building their own databases, Dimbambi has already riddled with 50 kg of fat.

The use of intelligent machines as a health application data center, tracking, analysis of exercise data has become increasingly popular. MyFitnessPal said earlier that its registered users have reached 65 million. However, the success of this app is only part of the health apposphere's success. In the first half of 2014, VC funds invested in this area reached 2.3 billion U.S. dollars, far exceeding the 2013 full year figure. More importantly, the Big Three, including Apple, Google and Samsung, all extend their reach to health platforms in an effort to bring consumers an integrated "application + device" solution.

"We're at the tipping point," said Harry Wang, an analyst with Park Associates, a health and mobile research firm, "health equipment and applications have experienced rapid growth but remain relatively small markets. The ecosystem can attract users and eventually drive the industry into the mainstream. "While not a guarantee of success, Harry King believes it makes sense that the digital health industry be backed by a powerful company. Apple's Healthkit and Google's Google Fit have access to a larger base of users and are able to align with traditional health industry institutions, which are difficult for start-ups to compete with their own strengths. "There will be changes in this market, with big winners and frustrated people," Harry King added.

Hardware no longer priority:

For years, the digital health industry has been driven by Fitbit, Nike's Fuelband and Jawbone wearable devices. But if the smartphone industry giants are able to create platforms for health and fitness data, hardware-first business will get into trouble. "Fitness wearable devices have many basic features, including tracking running distance, heart rate, etc., but this will be standard on smartphones or watches," said Harry King.

Perhaps seeing the bottleneck, Nike has decided to stop producing Fuelband hardware and will focus on the software ecosystem. Another startup, Lark, which offers fitness bracelets, has also announced its abandonment of hardware products, its expertise in applications and its integration with Samsung's S Heath platform.

Julie Hu, chief executive of Lark, said: "We recognize that smartphones equipped with low-power sensors are the ultimate in wearable devices."

Leonard MacEachern, a professor of electrical engineering at the electronics facility, said: "If I'm still relying on a speedometer to build a fitness device, that's terrible. Unless you have technology that goes beyond Apple's Google Smartphone, You will be swallowed up. "

Insiders said 2012-2013 is the wearable device eruption, but the market is changing rapidly. Including Apple, Google and fitness equipment manufacturers are committed to creating their own ecosystem: Both Jawbone and Fitbit are open APIs to share data with other different applications. While this is a smart choice, the smartphone system platform offers a cleaner, more seamless experience.

Software into the king:

Although some hardware giants have encountered setbacks due to the rise of smart machine health platforms, application developers have benefited greatly. Malay Gandhi, a partner at Rock Health, a venture capital firm, said: "Fitbit and Jawbone devices are an essential element of the industry, but their market share has never been above 2%, above 3% As the backbone of this ecosystem, software companies get instant access to tens of millions of new users. "

Gande believes that this change will expand the user base of digital health markets. "At this stage, the use of this type of health wear products are early enthusiasts, technical people, they have a quantitative lifestyle, as well as those who want to optimize the exercise ability of young people," Gan Dexi said, "If the smart machine as Baseline lets the elderly and tech-savvy people try these services, and users will not learn how to hold a bracelet to pair with a dozen different applications, but instead use custom software on the iPhone. "

If smart machines become the default platform for consumer health and fitness data, will the app become a big winner? Julie Ask, an analyst at market research firm Forrester, said: "I think the best of these services are those that make the entire community. People are really obsessed with competition, which creates a bunch of active users , And then attract everyone to reuse the application. "

One apple a day:

Back in 2008, Google introduced the Google Health project, which gives users easy access to medication data stored in different media. Unfortunately, however, the project failed to take off and Google formally closed Google Heath in January 2013. However, Google subsequently introduced Google Fit, the purpose is not the previous world's major hospitals, clinics Internet. Gandhi of Rock Health commented: "I think Page and Brin (the two founders of Google) are cautiously involved in this very regulated market, but Google this time will focus on fitness and nutrition, less the share Ambitious. "

On the contrary, Apple is working with doctors and health providers to break the barriers. At the WWDC (Global Developers Conference), Apple announced its partnership with Epic, which controls 51% of patient records across the United States, which marks Apple's ability to begin digesting more than half of the nation's health data. At the same time, doctors will also be able to monitor the condition of these patients. "Knowing the patient's blood pressure by clicking the Epic label before you visit the clinic will be welcome by physicians," said Iltifat Husain, editor of iMedicalApp, a medical magazine. "At this stage, Storage, will lead to the doctor to open the amount of drugs is not standardized.

But for the doctor, this service also has shortcomings. Doctors face huge amounts of data and they must choose valuable and accurate content. "The biggest challenge for physicians is the accuracy of the data and the amount of medication they use. They have questions, do I really want all the data? Can I trust it? If data is wrong, will I be prosecuted or I Which data is missing? "However, Apple, Google and Samsung are already at the forefront of startup trust in the medical industry, but the road ahead is still full of thorns.

Dreaming skydiving:

Earlier this month, Di Tanbo finally dreaming skydiving. "I was able to feel my heartbeat as the plane climbed through the clouds, and when we got out of the cabin, we were over the clouds, and after we saw it, we saw the whole gulf.

Di Tan Bo Fortunately in the world of smart machines, each user can easily view their health and fitness data, and share relevant information with the doctor. "It gives you control of everything when you can actually know what to wear into your mouth, how well you exercise rather than guess roughly."

For investors in digital health, Di Tanbo's experience heralded the major changes and future prospects in the industry. "It's not yet known how big this market is and as soon as many people start using devices that track heart rate and daily exercise data, chances are some incredible new opportunities," Gander said. (South piano)