Opinion:
Ricky Winewright
I doubt they were ever seriously looking for those sensors. They may have checked it out when researching, but the cost:benefit wasn't enough. Serious healthcare products should be robust and purpose-built, not tacked on to a dinky square watch that dies after a day. Not sure why people are expecting apple or google or anyone to seriously take a dip into health care applications, its a murky water with lots of regulation and low margins.
Spend a few minutes on Indiegogo and you'll come across a series of extraordinarily ambitious wearable devices promising to detect everything from your sleep patterns, to your stress levels, to the number of calories you've burned in the past hour. They've incited plenty of skepticism and the latest report from The Wall Street Journal shows why: the Apple Watch was initially intended as exactly that sort of multifunctional health-monitoring device, but the sensors available just weren't good enough. Heart activity, blood pressure, and stress levels were among the things Apple wanted to track with the Watch, however issues of complexity and reliability — such as getting accurate readings on users with hairy arms or dry skin — forced Apple into changing its plans.
