A few weeks into the lifecycle of the Apple Watch Series 9, Bloomberg takes a deep dive into the smart wearables line with some interesting details about its past and speculation about new health tracking features for the next generation smartwatch. With the Apple Watch Series 10, users will be able to track blood pressure and sleep apnea to get a more comprehensive health profile.
In the future, Apple hopes to incorporate non-invasive blood glucose monitoring into its smartwatches for people with pre-diabetes. Instead of medical-grade readings, the device will show users’ blood sugar levels in trend form and alert them if they enter a prediabetic state. According to a company insider, Apple is not interested in post-sick health care for people with diabetes.
To calculate blood glucose concentrations, Apple will use a technique known as short-wave infrared absorption spectroscopy, which beams light through the skin between blood vessels and cells and then reads the light that reflects back.
Also detailed in the Bloomberg report was a retrospective look at Apple Watch’s early days, which began at the end of Steve Jobs’s tenure as CEO. According to reports, Jobs tasked several high-ranking executives with developing a non-invasive blood glucose monitor. In order to make the blood glucose monitor for the Apple Watch Series 1 a reality, Apple devised a startup called Avolonte Health.
The company was located in a small two-story building in Palo Alto, California just 15 minutes away from Apple’s headquarters and employed engineers, health consultants, medical device experts, and sleep scientists. Due to the Apple Watch being a sales driver for the iPhone, Apple also planned to make Apple Watch and Apple Health compatible with Android devices.
