Apple’s HealthKit plagued by bugs and delay
pharmafile | September 18, 2014 | News story | Medical Communications, Sales and Marketing | Apple, Samsung, digital, google, health kit, ios8, wearables
Apple’s new mobile software iOS8 was launched around the world yesterday but the eagerly anticipated centrepiece HealthKit app was conspicuous by its absence.
Apple has released a brief statement saying that the app is facing problems, but is “working quickly to have the bug fixed in a software update and have HealthKit apps available by the end of the month”.
Apple has also pulled other healthcare apps from its app store that connect with HealthKit – such as MyFitnessPal and Carrot Fit.
HealthKit, which has been developed with the prestigious Mayo Clinic in the US, gathers data such as blood pressure and weight from various health apps on Apple devices, and can be viewed by doctors at one place.
Regulated medical devices, such as glucose monitors with accompanying iPhone apps, can also send information to HealthKit.
The app can in addition help users track their food and nutrition intake as well as their fitness and sleeping patterns. There are already many apps on the market that can do this, but Apple says it is the first to bring them all together in one place, on one device.
But Apple is in reality playing catch-up with its rivals Samsung and Sony, who have already released fitness-tracking wearable devices, although analysts say the market for such devices remains fairly stagnant.
Many in the industry – including Apple’s rivals – are hoping that its unique brand of marketing could help breathe new life into the wearables market, but this latest development is adding to an already bad start for the firm.
Apple will also still need to address huge privacy concerns even after the app is fixed, as many are wary of having all their private information stored at one location, susceptible to hackers.
iOS8 launch
The new iOS8 has been launched just two days before sales of its new iPhones – the 6 and 6 Plus – go live in nine countries, including the UK and the US.
At a special event hosted by Apple in California last week many in the healthcare industry were confused by the firm’s quietness around its HealthKit offering, and questioned why it didn’t receive a bigger billing – today’s admission that it simply isn’t ready goes a long way to explain why.
Apple’s overall focus on health, which is also integral to its new (but also delayed) smartwatch, seems to have been dropped whilst the company works out these bugs, and has done much to overshadow what has already been a glitch-ridden launch.
On 12 September Apple live-streamed the announcement of its new phones and smartwatch from its base, but the video was beset with issues including screen black-outs, compatibility issues with most (non-Safari) browsers and occasional Chinese text being broadcast on the screen.
Many iPhone users found also when updating to iOS8 yesterday that Apple’s servers were down and were repeatedly met with error messages. Apple has billed the introduction of iOS8 as the “biggest release since the launch of the App Store” in 2008, although there are few visual differences to the previous iOS7, users note.
Ben Adams
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