September is nearing which means the tech world is eagerly awaiting the debut of Apple’s newest mobile devices. Speculation mounts as the date draws near, and through the clutter of speculation and rumor has emerged the date of the unveiling: Tuesday, September 9, courtesy of re/code’s John Paczkowski.
And this year, there’s one thing we’re particularly excited about – and it has nothing to do with how big the screen might be. It’s how people will use the new devices. At WWDC, Apple introduced HealthKit to provide users a central, secure place for storing health and fitness data.
With HealthKit and the Health app, iOS users will be able to combine their highly sensitive data in a secure environment that can only be viewed by sources meeting their strict approval. By restricting advertisers or data brokers from accessing this data, Apple is creating a trusted platform that is essential for the success of mobile health.
Innovation in this area is having a remarkable impact already. People are using mobile apps and devices to become better engaged with their fitness and health, while medical apps are connecting patients and providers to improve health outcomes.
This is an exciting time for companies operating in this marketplace. 2014 is the year of the health app, according to statistics from analytics firm Flurry. And, the mobile health app market is projected to reach $26 billion by 2017 according to research2guidance.
The key for adoption is for users to feel safe with the privacy and security of their information. The architecture Apple has constructed with HealthKit should provide the confidence consumers need for mobile health to flourish. This is also good news for app makers.
After Apple announced at WWDC that payments to iOS developers had topped $20 billion, we now learn that July was the record-setting month for app store revenue, as reported by CNBC. With this momentum, we look forward to September’s implementation of HealthKit – and of course, to seeing one more thing at the launch event.