Apple could soon offer services such as telemedicine, fitness coaching and health chatbots as it continues to build out its footprint in the healthcare space, according to a report from analysts at market research firm CB Insights.
Here are five report highlights:
1. One of the key reasons Apple is moving into healthcare is to differentiate its products from its competitors and reach its goals, which include: (1) selling more high-margin hardware, (2) increasing the cost to switch from its ecosystem and (3) expanding its service offerings. CB Insights suggests Apple may begin offering health-related services like fitness coaching to achieve these aims.
2. Apple also maintains a widely used third-party developer ecosystem in its app store. This type of a platform is lacking in the healthcare data space today.
3. Overall customer trust in Apple is much higher than with other healthcare players or tech giants entering the industry, meaning it's well-poised to leave a lasting impact with consumers. What's more, Apple has a direct reach to nearly 85.8 million iPhone users in the U.S.
4. A core tenant of Apple's health strategy is its health app, which links up with its personal health record feature. Making health data easily accessible helping patients to regularly monitor their healthcare information, a feature that could attract new users to Apple products.
5. Apple is increasingly adding new elements to its iPhone, making it more powerful and allowing medical devices to be built on top of it. For example, a new tool could include embedding sensors into its camera to monitor changes in blood flow.
"Apple is blurring the line between wellness and healthcare, using its position in your pocket to connect the two. If it can crack the personal health record and patient data platform, it would empower patients to make decisions and give data access to whoever they choose," the report reads. "This is a very different paradigm for healthcare, where patients have increasingly more leverage, information and agency in their decision making."
To download the complete CB Insights report, click here.