MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Technology giant Google(NSDQ:GOOG) is about to open the curtain on this year’s I/O conference and analysts and insiders are projected a major foray into digital health.
Anonymous sources told reporters earlier this month that Google’s about to unveil Google Fit, the Android systems maker’s answer to Apple’s (NSDQ:AAPL) coming HealthKit platform and Health app for tracking health and fitness data from various wearable devices and outside data sources. Forbes, which broke rumors of Google Fit, maintains that the company will reveal partnerships with popular fitness and activity trackers as well as makers of wearable devices.
The push is no surprise given consumer technology’s growing interest in health. Even Apple wasn’t the 1st of the major players to reveal a significant play in digital health. Google in 2008 launched its short-lived Google Health personal medical record storage and tracking service and Microsoft is still supports the Microsoft HealthVault personal record database. But Samsung (LON:BC94) beat rivals to the punch this year when it unveiled its "Simband" platform for sensor-enabled wearables and mobile devices and the SAMI platform for aggregating biometric data with other technologies.
Google hasn’t commented on rumors about the Google Fit announcement, but the market is watching eagerly.
"For both fitness nuts and those aspiring to be healthier, Google has the ability to build some extraordinary tools," according to one report from VentureBeat. "Google has all the brain power it needs to help users finally understand what makes them thinner, stronger, and more productive."
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