14 DAY TRIAL // Google already declared its interest in wearables when it announced its dedicated OS for the category, entitled Android Wear.
Now with Google I/O conference on our doorstep (scheduled for June 25 and 26), we’re probably going to see a more detailed presentation of Android Wear. But that’s not all Google has in plan to unveil, in terms of wearables.
According to information brought to us by PhoneArena, the search giant will also be introducing a new health service entitled Google Fit, which should be able to collect and aggregate info from health-related apps and health-centric machines.
Thus, Google Fit will be in direct competition with Samsung’s freshly launched Sami, a platform that will collect health info from devices and apps.
Also, don’t forget Apple also pulled the HealthKit framework out of the bag, which will have the same purposes.
We’re not told whether Google Fit will be something built-in into the next version of Android or it will be a standalone app that Android users will be able to download in order to make use of it.
Google has paved this road before by virtue of Google Health, which also acted as a health portal but got axed in 2012.
The search giant might be looking to marry Google Fit with Android Wear, which is the most likely scenario.
This way, an owner of multiple Android Wear devices could be able to take advantage of aggregating the information provided by the wearables via Google Fit and seeing the full picture, instead of disparate pieces of info.
But there’s a piece of the puzzle missing here. So far, Google’s Android Wear smartwatch platform hasn't shown any signs of bring fitness tracking capabilities to the tablet, but we’ll most likely be surprised once the Google I/O starts.
After all, at this stage in wearable development, launching an Android Wear device without fitness tracking capabilities can be considered a big deficiency.
Anyway, it seems that at this point fitness-tracking services are the next big step in the wearable tech industry.
And it makes sense if you’re the owner of a smartwatch capable of tracking your heart rate and a smart band that can tell you how many calories you burned today, to have a place where it all comes together, so you can get a clear picture of where you’re standing.
We’re pretty curious to see how these services will handle privacy. Will Samsung, Google and the likes be tempted to sell ads against your health info? They most likely will. >