Apple is making it clear that health and fitness are on its radar in a serious way with yet another job listing for experts in the field. This time, the iPhone and iPad maker is looking for for physiologists to design and run health-related studies, and then analyze the collected data. Add that to the other medical and fitness related hires Apple has made, and there's a pretty compelling case to support the idea that the rumored iWatch will include health monitoring and fitness tracking features.
Apple job openings offer more hints into iWatch fitness plans
The job listing appeared on February 6 and was removed later in the day. 9to5 Mac managed to see the job opening before it disappeared. The posting said Apple is looking for people with a solid understanding of physiological monitoring equipment, good measurement and data interpretation skills, experience in measuring calories and energy expenditure, and related test design skills.
Apple has been busy over the past couple years bringing health, fitness, and wearable tech experts onto its payroll. The company has hired Jay Blahnik and Ben Scaffer -- both worked with Nike on wearable fitness tech, plus Paul Deneve, a former Yves St Laurent executive with a fashion-oriented eye for wearable tech.
The company also hired Dr. Michael O'Reilly from Masimo, who has experience with pulse-enabled oximeters; former vice president of research at Vital Connect Ravi Narasimhan, Nancy Dougherty from the transdermal medicine delivery company Sano; former director of optics and systems engineering at C8 MediSensors, Ueyn Block; Todd Whitehurst who worked at Senseonics as vice president of product development; and sleep expert Roy J.E.M. Raymann who previously served as a senior scientist at Philips Research.
Add to that Apple CEO Tim Cook's comments about his company's interest in wearable and wrist top technology, and there's a fairly strong case to support the idea that the iWatch is on the way. "It's an area that's ripe for exploration, it's ripe for us to get excited about," he said.
If Apple really is working on getting into the wearable technology space, companies like Nike, Fitbit and LifeTrak will have to step up their game to compete. The upside for Apple's competitors is that the most recent job posting suggests the company is still in an early testing phase, so they still have at least several months -- and probably longer -- before the game is on.