Google Targets Mobile Health App Market
Search engine giant Google will soon introduce Google Fit, a new mobile platform service to collect, aggregate and analyze data from wearable health fitness tracking products and healthcare apps, Forbes reports.
Search engine giant Google will soon introduce Google Fit, a new mobile platform service to collect, aggregate and analyze data from wearable health fitness tracking products and healthcare apps, Forbes reports.
The vendor, which is not publicly commenting, is holding its Google I/O conference for developers on June 25-26 and has several sessions related to wearable computing, according to Forbes. Its unclear if Google Fit will be a service built into the next version of Android, or a standalone app that Android users will be able to download independently.
Google Fit will enter a competitive market for fitness and wellness apps that got larger on June 16 when WebMD launched a program to make biometric data understandable and actionable on iPhones.
WebMD already offers a range of consumer-oriented medical information content accessible on an iPhone. Now it has expanded that program, called Healthy Target, by offering consumers a personal repository to hold their healthcare data collected from fitness apps from Entra, Fitbit, Jawbone and Withings, as well as ways to act on the data.
Healthy Target has specific programs for collecting data to meet health goals such as losing weight, eating healthier, being more active, controlling blood sugar, sleeping better and feeling better. Consumers can track their progress and receive appropriate supporting content and personalized reminders from WebMD--such as a message that jumping rope is good for losing weight and good for the bones--to give encouragement and insights into the data collected. The company expects to release an Android version at a later time.
Other competitors to Google in the wearable device market include Samsung, with Apple and Microsoft coming in later this year, according to Forbes. This is not the first time Google has jumped big into the health information technology arena. The company in 2007 introduced Google Health, a personal health record for consumers with tools to collect and manage health information, but could not get market traction and shut it down in 2012, although customers were able to download their Google Health data until 2013.
The vendor, which is not publicly commenting, is holding its Google I/O conference for developers on June 25-26 and has several sessions related to wearable computing, according to Forbes. Its unclear if Google Fit will be a service built into the next version of Android, or a standalone app that Android users will be able to download independently.
Google Fit will enter a competitive market for fitness and wellness apps that got larger on June 16 when WebMD launched a program to make biometric data understandable and actionable on iPhones.
WebMD already offers a range of consumer-oriented medical information content accessible on an iPhone. Now it has expanded that program, called Healthy Target, by offering consumers a personal repository to hold their healthcare data collected from fitness apps from Entra, Fitbit, Jawbone and Withings, as well as ways to act on the data.
Healthy Target has specific programs for collecting data to meet health goals such as losing weight, eating healthier, being more active, controlling blood sugar, sleeping better and feeling better. Consumers can track their progress and receive appropriate supporting content and personalized reminders from WebMD--such as a message that jumping rope is good for losing weight and good for the bones--to give encouragement and insights into the data collected. The company expects to release an Android version at a later time.
Other competitors to Google in the wearable device market include Samsung, with Apple and Microsoft coming in later this year, according to Forbes. This is not the first time Google has jumped big into the health information technology arena. The company in 2007 introduced Google Health, a personal health record for consumers with tools to collect and manage health information, but could not get market traction and shut it down in 2012, although customers were able to download their Google Health data until 2013.