Steve Blank‘s recent post on the Apple Watch (The Apple Watch – Tipping Point for Healthcare) is another great analysis of how technological developments and business model innovation can come together to create huge value for society – and the companies that create them.
He identifies at least seven conditions that the new Apple watch should be able to monitor – from blood pressure and glucose levels to fall monitoring and UV exposure – and unpacks just how useful the huge data set from ill and healthy people could be in improving medical diagnosis and monitoring.
The most interesting part for me was on how this opportunity builds on Apple’s existing business incrementally while potentially opening the door to a huge – a really, really huge – new market:
Unlike other medical device companies, Apple’s current Watch business model is not dependent on getting insurers to pay for the watch. Today consumers pay directly for the Watch. However, if the Apple Watch becomes a device eligible for reimbursement, there’s a huge revenue upside for Apple. When and if that happens, your insurance would pay for all or part of an Apple Watch as a diagnostic tool.
Pow.
You can listen to the blog in podcast form here.