Jay Blahnik, Apple's health and fitness chief, has opened up about what he sees as the Apple Watch's role in fitness, and what he's looking forward to with the future of the watch. Blahnik, a long-time figure in the world of fitness, said that he thinks the Apple Watch stands out against other fitness trackers by providing more valuable data, not only that someone has burned calories, but when and how.
From Outdside Online:
Other activity trackers focus on just one thing: steps or calories. That offers a certain level of simplicity, which is very attractive, but it's also misleading. Tell me that you've burned more calories during the day, and I'm going to immediately ask, "How and when did you burn them?" The Watch tracks three things: movement, standing time, and minutes of exercise. It's about more than quantity. As I like to say, it gives you three ways to win. And it does so in a visual way.
Thinking about the future, Blahnik is excited about the potential of native third-party apps, which will start hitting the Apple Watch this fall. Native apps will have access to the more of the watch's hardware, like the heart rate monitor and the accelerometer. Blahnik is intrigued by the potential of the watch when used in sports where how much you do isn't always the goal.
There are a lot of sports and activities where the sum of the activity isn't necessarily measuring what actually matters. Think about golf or tennis or baseball. If you can measure what's happening at the wrist, you may get an opportunity to learn things that aren't about calories or tracking but about form or injury prevention.
Blahnik also talked about pulling activity data to the watch from third-party devices:
We have the ability to bring in metrics from lots of different devices. We see more and more people buying scales to lose weight. But that same scale could work for a cyclist to get her ready for race day. Someone may be able to create a great app for that scale or a great app for the PowerTap on your bike. There's a huge appetite from consumers to get more measurement from more devices.
You can read Blahnik's whole interview at the link below.
Source: Outside Online
