
Apple plans to update the Apple Watch in a significant way by adding new sensors that can detect blood pressure and sleep apnea, according to a report from Bloomberg on Wednesday.
The Cupertino giant is working on an “evolving approach to health care,” according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The next-generation Apple Watch, likely to be marketed as Series 9, will include a sensor to detect when your blood pressure rises. It won’t show exact systolic and diastolic measurements, but Apple does have plans to add that in future versions of the Apple Watch.
Next year’s Apple Watch will also reportedly monitor breathing and sleeping habits to predict if a person has sleep apnea, a condition where breathing stops and starts during the night. However, the new sensor to detect sleep apnea will be limited. The watch will reportedly recommend visiting a doctor if it detects sleep apnea.
Both new features will reportedly be tied to a new paid health service, which could be announced as early as next year. The paid health coaching service could boost Apple’s Services offerings and eventually help increase revenue. Apple’s services business is its second largest, just behind the iPhone, generating $19.6 billion in revenue during the third quarter, up 12 per cent year over year. The report also says Apple continues to focus on health features, and in the future, it may integrate Fitness Plus, its video workouts service, into the Vision Pro headset.
In another article, Gurman writes that Apple’s deeper penetration in healthcare has slowed down a bit, in part due to concerns from senior executives, including Apple CEO Tim Cook and COO Jeff Williams. The executives reportedly don’t want to go wrong in the high-stakes field of healthcare, as it “could tarnish the perception of the company.”