Disruption feed 2021 #19 – Glucose and alcohol sensors in Apple watch, resetting the app store & new business model for TV hardware
Glucose and alcohol sensors in the Apple watch??
Apple has been revealed to be a large customer for the start-up Rockley Photonics.
The company are researching and developing optical sensors for detecting blood metrics, ex blood pressure, blood glucose and blood alcohol level. The startup has said that the new sensors could be in devices next year, which would likely match well with Apple Watch Series 8. Very interesting for the next night out and possibly for diabetics??
RELATED ARTICLE: Apple watch blood pressure glucose alcohol
New business model for TV hardware
The TV monitor manufacturer Vizio’s latest financial report revealed an interesting and somewhat controversial way of making profit on selling TV’s. Their model is to push the price of their TV products and thereby downgrade the profitability per product sold, in order to then make money on data. By tracking what its customers are watching, Vizio can capture and sell the data to advertisers with high margins. How transparent this data collection is has been questioned however.
RELATED ARTICLE: Vizio q1 earnings inscape
Resetting the app store
More on Apple as Benedict Evans has written an interesting piece on how the Apple’s app store might change as EU investigates the model and lawsuits linger. When Apple launched the store in July 2008 it had only sold 6m iPhones ever, but now a billion people have one, and competition laws apply, whether you like it or not. Benedict poses some interesting questions: If I subscribe to a magazine through app store, should Apple really get 30%? If not, when is 30% ok? Why is it OK for Roblox to have a game store, but not Stadia? Why it is any safer to give your credit card to a random ecommerce app than a random game? Possibly big changes to come for Apple!
RELATED ARTICLE: Resetting the app store