Although touted as a health-focused smartgear, the Apple Watch will not be equipped with health-monitoring features, The Wall Street Journal reported. Despite its classiness, style and promised functionality, the smartwatch will reportedly have to slash its blood pressure, heart rate or even stress level sensors due to consistency issues, making the device an all-purpose product instead.
During the tech giant's testing of the device, it was revealed that its skin conductivity feature did not perform as it should for wearers with hairy arms or dry skin. Also, it seems that the results returned were affected solely on how tight users wore the Apple Watch. With its health aspect not up to snuff, Apple will have trouble getting the device approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and several other regulators.
Despite taking away the much-needed health monitors, Apple CEO Tim Cook declared that the Apple Watch will be here to "change the way people live their lives" with the "breadth of what it will do." So it may be stripped of the heart sensor and all others, but the Cupertino-based company is working hard to compensate for that. The smartwatch still has activity monitoring, which will help users stand up after a certain bout as well as its non-verbal and all-tap communication.
The health features will not go away for good though. The Wall Street Journal and Reuters believe that they could be integrated into future versions of the Apple Watch. In the meantime, the tech firm reportedly wants all apps being developed for the device to be ready by mid-February as the Apple Watch will be out by April. The company is said to have ordered five to six million units, positive about its sales performance upon its launch. Details on pricing are still out of reach although Apple has stated that it will start around $349.
