Felix Stalder on Mon, 14 Apr 2014 10:16:10 +0200 (CEST) |
[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]
<nettime> Will your insurance company subsidize your quantified self? |
[Is there a difference between subsidizing those who do and penalizing whose who don't? Felix] Apple may seek health insurer subsidies for iWatch fitness bands By PATRICK SEITZ Posted 04/11/2014 07:27 PM ET http://news.investors.com/technology-click/041114-696987-apple-iwatch-could-be-subsidized-by-insurance-providers.htm Apple (AAPL) could be looking to health insurance companies to help subsidize its rumored iWatch fitness bands in the same way that wireless carriers subsidize the cost of smartphones. That speculation comes from Timothy Arcuri, an analyst with Cowen & Co. He raised the possibility on Friday in a research note that discussed possible product launches, including the iWatch, later this year from Apple. "We continue to believe it is possible the product (iWatch) is backstopped by some sort of insurance subsidization model similar to the carrier subsidization model for iPhone," he wrote. Its pitch apparently would be that an Apple a day keeps the doctor away. In other words, if people wearing an Apple iWatch are more cognizant of steps taken, calories burned, blood pressure, heart rate and other biometric data, they will lead healthier lives and have less need for medical care. Arcuri thinks Apple will introduce the wearable device in September to hit the holiday shopping season, based on his discussions with companies in the supply chain. "We continue to feel this product will differentiate itself with existing wearable products primarily from a health perspective with a number of key innovations including noninvasive blood cell count and blood pressure and other more pedestrian features like heart rate," Arcuri wrote. But he noted that the wearables market is "nascent and fraught with demand uncertainty." -- ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| http://felix.openflows.com |OPEN PGP: 056C E7D3 9B25 CAE1 336D 6D2F 0BBB 5B95 0C9F F2AC # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected]