Last night, Apple (‘Apple Watch’) saved my life !

While “connected life” has become a generic term, the depth of scope of its possibilities, as well as its societal authority can be thought provoking.

At the last Apple keynote in September 2018, the Apple Watch Series 4 was one of the flagship announcements of the show!  Nevertheless, beyond the new design and optimisation for the fitness of iOS (Apple’s iPhone operating system), this new watch has received the green light from the Federal Drug Administration. The FDA is in charge of the validation of the health regulations and drugs placed on sale in the USA. It also validates their official launch onto the market.

And in fact, this latest version of the Apple Watch now features a new accelerometer, a new gyroscope capable of identifying sudden movements in everyday life (falls, losing balance, etc.) and an electrocardiogram frequency sensor! So this small device is aiming to become a true personal health assistant.

Apple is positioning itself as our future guarantor for capturing and analysing our data and transmitting it to our chosen third party health provider.

For example, in the event of a deficient heart rate or a fall, an alert can be sent to a medical ecosystem appropriated by Apple.

At the event, Jeff Williams, Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, said “the Apple Watch has become an intelligent guardian for your health.”

Against the backdrop of a societal debate where health spending is growing steadily due to an aging population, and where the “Ma Santé 2022” government health programme is still being debated, maybe the quickest answer might come from the tech giants? Responsive personal data or Privacy? (see Amazon health article…)

Remember when Apple put its music online with iTunes, or more recently when Amazon launched its Alexa voice assistant?

Exactly the same thing is happening today with consumer habits. GAFAM and BATXJ want to enter into our lives, and they will succeed. Because when they have the weight of hundreds of millions of users behind them, they have the means to change the rules…

Amazon, Alibaba, and JD.com already supply over-the-counter medication from leading brands such as Advil, Mucinex and Nicorette, as well as generic brand options such as Perrigo’s GoodSense…

Armed with our banking data, our “home” data, our “car” data and our “health” data, Apple and its partners now have the means and certainly the will to centralise all this data about our daily lives. Their ambition is to become our future “personal life assistant”. It’s therefore plausible to imagine that Apple might offer us “life packages”, which will encompass all of the expenses relating to our daily lives (insurance, bank accounts, etc.).