Apple Plans Blood-Pressure Measure, Wrist Thermometer in Watch

Apple Inc. is working on new health-related features for its smartwatch, including a tool to tell users when their blood pressure is increasing and a thermometer to help with fertility planning, according to people familiar with the plans and internal company documents.

Read the following article from the WSJ (permalink to free access to article here – click “read article” – no need to subscribe) or read from the attached printout.

Think about how Apple might incorporate its future smartwatch that has additional health-related features into the broader Apple ecosystem. You may want to peruse the Apple website to identify the broad range of products and services it offers and speculate on both the existing and potential future products and services that might be integrated with its smartwatch’s health-monitoring capabilities.

Here are the questions that I would like you to address in your reflection:

1. What is the scale of the market in the U.S. of consumers who might want or need the health-related features that Apple’s future smartwatches might possess?
2. Where in the product life-cycle do you believe health-tech like what is described in the article to be? Explain your rationale
3. Describe a hypothetical use-case scenario in which a consumer might benefit from a health-related feature on an Apple smartwatch. How would you define the type of adopter this consumer is? Explain your rationale.
4. Among Apple’s current portfolio of products and services, which do you think might be incorporated with the health-related features on its smartwatch? Ultimately, how might Apple monetize this?