Apple CEO Tim Cook thinks that health apps featured on devices such as the Apple Watch will define the legacy of the tech giant for several years to come.
Tim Cook believes that health apps will define the legacy of Apple.
The tech giant’s CEO believes that devices such as the Apple Watch – which can monitor heart rate and sleep quality – will be remembered as game-changing in years to come.
Cook told Wired: “It’s clear to me that if you zoom out way into the future, and you look back and ask what Apple’s biggest contribution was, it will be in the health area. That’s what I really believe.
“When we started pulling the string with the Apple Watch, it was a cascade of events. We started with something simple, like monitoring your heart rate, and then figured out we could pick up heart signals to get to an EKG and an AFib determination.
“Now we are monitoring sleep apnea. I’ve gotten so many notes over time from people who would have not survived had it not been for the alert on their wrist.”
Apple are planning to give their AirPods the ability to correct hearing loss and Cook say the process is the “democratisation of health”.
The businessman said: “It’s not about competing against hearing aids on the market. It’s about trying to convince people who have hearing loss to use their AirPods. The vast majority of people with hearing issues have not been diagnosed.
“For some people, hearing aids have a stigma, and we can counter that with AirPods. And we can have people diagnose themselves. It’s the democratisation of health.”
Apple products such as the iPhone have had a transformative impact on society but Cook is concerned about “people endlessly scrolling”.
He said: “I worry about people endlessly scrolling. That’s the reason we do things like Screen Time, to try to guide people. We support people putting limits on themselves, like the number of notifications you get. We do a lot of things in the parental controls area as well.
“My fundamental belief is, if you’re looking at your phone more than you’re looking in somebody’s eyes, that’s a problem.”
Tim Cook thinks health apps will be defining for Apple’s legacy
