One of the most persistent rumors for iOS 8 focuses on Healthbook, a Passbook-style, card-based "wallet" app that would collect all your fitness, nutrition, sleep, and medical data all in one place. These rumors have been tied to the iWatch as a way Apple could track more and better health-based information, but there's also been speculation that Apple might go broader. Benedict Evans:
Suppose, for the sake of argument, that Apple does indeed plan a health app that's card-based, somewhat like Passbook. What would happen when you buy and turn on a blood pressure monitor that is certified for 'Healthbook'? Well, one would expect that Apple would use the Bluetooth LE auto discovery that's already in iOS7 to detect it automatically and tell you. And then, suppose it offers to install the Healthbook card to manage it (either from iTunes or from the device itself) - an HTML/Javascript package that runs in the Healthbook sandbox in some way. Suppose it does the same for any sensor you might buy? Then Apple has created a zero-setup platform for personal health devices. No apps, no native code, no app store, no configuration at all.
This would be one answer to why Apple's recent hires of 'wearables experts' sound a bit like a team for a hospital device rather than a watch, measuring various quite technical things - because Apple plans to enable such devices, not try to pack every single one into its own device. That is, the straightforward sensors should live in the phone (like the pedometer that's already in the iPhone 5S) and the complex and demanding ones should be enabled by an Apple platform, not become part of an Apple device.
Evans goes far beyond this, wondering out loud if this new, decoupled model could extend to Apple TV, CarPlay, and products from Google as well. In essence, whether apps and the web as we know it could be morphing into something more dynamic and more on-demand.
I've been hoping push-interface would emerge for a couple of years now. Check out Evans' piece and let me know — how would you want to see Healthbook and other next-generation services work?
