Apple is working on turning its future glasses and headsets into health and fitness devices, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Gurman’s comments came in the latest edition of his Power On Newsletter.
When it developed the original Vision Pro, Apple had some major health and fitness goals for the device. One initiative was a version of Apple Fitness+ that could run inside the headset. The idea was to let users wear the device while working out and following classes, with the headset using its body-tracking technology to analyze movements. But this never launched due to technological hurdles and the headset itself being too heavy.
When Apple began investigating smart glasses, Apple took a close look at how its health device ambitions could be moved forward by the form factor. Apple has a history of taking an establish platform and moving it forward into the health space. The Cupertino firm was able to take AirPods, which were used for listening to music and taking calls on their iPhone, and turn them into a hearing Aid system.
Smart glasses will offer multiple sensors, making it easily able to record data and see a user’s movements, paving the way for health and fitness features.
Gurman doesn’t expect the first generation of Apple’s smart glasses to offer these capabilities when the product debuts next year, but he does believe we’ll see something happen over the long term.
Apple recently posted a job listing for a “strategic product design leader,” which Gurman says affirms that the company’s Vision Products Group, the team developing glasses and future headsets, is looking for that hire to “define the future of health, well-being and fitness experiences across vision products.” This person will need to “translate ambiguous opportunities at the intersection of spatial computing, wearables, consumer health and human behavior” into a clear product direction, according to Apple’s job posting.
The hire also needs to have “experience developing and validating digital health or fitness products” and “familiarity with sensor-driven experiences,” making it clear that the company wants its glasses to join the ranks of AirPods and the Apple Watch in being a health and fitness device.
