Niels Adriaans

5/5 (1)

Apple moving into healthcare

Recently a man was going to bike with his father. However, instead of meeting his father he received a text message sent by his father’s Apple Watch: “Detected a Hard Fall” along with the location of his father. It was not far away from the man, so he drove there. Once arrived, his father was nowhere to be seen. Again the man received a text message. It included the changed location of his father, now at the nearby hospital. Apparently, the watch called an ambulance, that brought his father to the hospital. This happened all while his father was unconsciousness. This feature is called ‘HARD FALL’ detection (Facebook.com, 2019).

Nowadays Apple gives its customers the opportunity to be more connected than ever via devices and apps. The hardware along with the software gives the consumer the opportunity to provide the owner with different data. For example, it can monitor the distance you walk and your heartbeat. All devices automatically report back. This way Apple can provide its large userbase health services.

Apple is also building new components into their existing devices to focus more on health care. Recently Apple filed a patent for a camera, ambient light sensor, and proximity sensor. These techniques combined can measure changes in blood flows. This again can be used for more medical insights (CB Insights Research, 2019).

Apart from complex technological advances in consumer health care, Apple is also trying to change how medical records are stored. By creating Health Records Apple tries to bring different healthcare organizations into one application. That way data can be retrieved from one single location. This is far more efficient compares to how it’s done nowadays with data stored in different silo’s (Apple Newsroom, 2019).

According to Morgan Stanley Apple could emerge as a leader in the consumer health industry by disrupting it. This opportunity is valued between $15 billion and $313 billion. This gives Apple the opportunity to grow beyond its current valuation (Fortune, 2019).

Sources:

Apple Newsroom. (2019). Apple announces solution bringing health records to iPhone. [online] Available at: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/01/apple-announces-effortless-solution-bringing-health-records-to-iPhone/ [Accessed 24 Sep. 2019].

CB Insights Research. (2019). Apple Is Going After The Healthcare Industry, Starting With Personal Health Data. [online] Available at: https://www.cbinsights.com/research/apple-healthcare-strategy-apps/ [Accessed 24 Sep. 2019].

Facebook.com. (2019). Gabe Burdett. [online] Available at: https://www.facebook.com/theburdetts/posts/10214583646975103 [Accessed 24 Sep. 2019].

Fortune. (2019). Apple’s Healthcare Take Could Be $313 Billion by 2027, Analysts Say. [online] Available at: https://fortune.com/2019/04/08/apple-healthcare-apple-watch/ [Accessed 24 Sep. 2019].

5/5 (2)

On the 18^th of June this year Facebook announced the cryptocurrency ‘Libra’. Currently, there are around 1 billion people in this world who do not have a bank account but do have a mobile phone. Libra aims to create a financial infrastructure based on blockchain technology in order to facilitate payments between peers with low transaction fees (M.facebook.com, 2019). However, Facebook will not do this on its own. In this blog post, I will elaborate on what is behind Libra, how it will work and further implications.

Libra is a non-profit entity. It has scheduled the launch for 2020. Currently, it has 28 founding partners, but they hope to reach 100 partners before the launch. Most of them are tech companies, such as eBay, Spotify, and Uber. These Partners will be responsible for running a node in order to secure the network and validate transactions. They will also receive voting power to participate in important decisions about the development of the token and governance (Libra.org, 2019).

Each time someone buys Libra coins the Libra association uses that money to buy stable currencies like the Dollar and securities. This way the value of Libra will not fluctuate a lot. This way people using Libra can easily use and cash out libra for their native currency (TechCrunch, 2019).

People will be able to send Libra through social media like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp to each other. They can also spend it in the Uber app or in other places where they accept Libra. Facebook says it will never connect your payment behavior to your Facebook identity. In that case, they will not be able to know what their users buy (TechCrunch, 2019).

In my opinion, Facebook is clearly showing good intentions. They founded an association with other companies. However, I think the only reason they did it together with others because Facebook understands we do not trust them anymore. I do also agree with several political institutions they undermine the existing financial monetary policies in the world (the Guardian, 2019). Therefore I am really curious about how this unfolds. Please share your opinion on this topic!

Bibliography

Libra.org. (2019). Libra | A New Global Currency. [online] Available at: https://libra.org/en-US/ [Accessed 12 Sep. 2019].

M.facebook.com. (2019). Mark Zuckerberg. [online] Available at: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10107693323579671&id=4 [Accessed 12 Sep. 2019].

The Guardian. (2019). France to block development of Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/12/france-block-development-facebook-libra-cryptocurrency [Accessed 12 Sep. 2019].

TechCrunch. (2019). Facebook announces Libra cryptocurrency: All you need to know – TechCrunch. [online] Available at: https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/18/facebook-libra/ [Accessed 12 Sep. 2019].

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