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Apple Collected Over 18,000 Hours of Health and Fitness Data for Apple Watch

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Apr 12, 2001
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ABC was recently invited to Apple's top-secret health and fitness lab for the Apple Watch for an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of the testing facility, accompanied by Apple executives Jeff Williams and Jay Blahnik. The network shared a preview of its visit on Good Morning America earlier today, and has now provided a closer look at the facility on the latest episode of late night show Nightline.

The five-minute interview behind closed doors revealed that Apple collected over 18,000 hours of health and fitness data based on over 10,000 workout sessions that Apple employees participated in over the past two years at the company's secretive fitness lab. Blahnik, director of fitness and health technologies at Apple, also confirmed that the company tested the Apple Watch outdoors based on a variety of activities.


Lower-quality YouTube video available for viewing outside the United States​
Apple Watch will be available April 24, with pre-orders starting April 10 in the first wave of launch countries: United States, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan and United Kingdom. The wrist-worn device starts at $349 for the Apple Watch Sport, while the stainless steel models will retail for between $549 to $1,099 and the 18-karat gold Apple Watch Edition will cost up to $17,000.

Article Link: Apple Collected Over 18,000 Hours of Health and Fitness Data for Apple Watch
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/03/21/apple-watch-abc-nightline/
Pretty cool, but expected. As a tech company as prestigious as Apple, you have to test it and perfect it otherwise your reputation will suffer.
 
Really looking forward to seeing how accurate the heart rate monitor is on the iWatch. For all the sensors they removed from prototypes, this should be a home run, right?

Anyone know how the heartrate sensor compares to the one that will be on the up3? same technology?
 
That's a pretty good deal we are getting with the $17,000 Apple Watch seeing how they could have charged $1 per hour of data collection. Saved $1000!
 
irfan22 said:
Really looking forward to seeing how accurate the heart rate monitor is on the iWatch. For all the sensors they removed from prototypes, this should be a home run, right?

Anyone know how the heartrate sensor compares to the one that will be on the up3? same technology?
Click to expand...

It's the same tech as all the wrist worn HRMs as far as anyone knows until someone takes it apart and says otherwise. Did they say if it does all day HRM or only for activities?
 
Smart move from Apple. Can't wait for the tech press to have a collective hissy fit when non-tech sites get watches to review, especially if these sites get a watch for review before or instead of some tech sites.
 
MrXiro said:
It's the same tech as all the wrist worn HRMs as far as anyone knows until someone takes it apart and says otherwise. Did they say if it does all day HRM or only for activities?
Click to expand...

True, but until someone takes it apart it's also far superior tech to all previous wrist-worn HRMS, as far as anyone knows.
 
surprised

I wouldn't never expect Samsung to test a product like this, they just release crap and keep releasing different products till they get it right. So good on you Apple on the effort to get a good product out the first time...

I still won't buy it though.... maybe when Apple drops the price or adds more sensors to make it worth that price point...


10 bucks a new watch strap connector comes out in 2 years and makes all those over priced straps useless.... Jono ivey will come out and say.. all new thin connector so we can make the thinnest watch ever, saving 1mm and ****ing all you over. thank you for dropping 500 dollars on your old useless strap...
 
odds said:
Nobody who doesn't work with the Watch at Apple knows yet bro, chill your pants.

Also, *WATCH. Is it that hard to remove the i- from your vocabulary with this product? Lol.. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

iWatch is bound to be an also ran in the world of smart watches.

Apple Watch, made by Apple, will totally crush it.
 
Try to imagine Samsung running 10,000 1–2 hour test sessions in a secret fitness lab over two years. Not very believable, is it? Neither the extreme pursuit of quality and usefulness, nor being years AHEAD of the industry instead of following 2 months behind the latest rumor about Apple...

I don't know if/when I'll want an Apple Watch, but I do know Apple goes way beyond the halfway spaghetti-on-the-wall product development practiced by the competition.
 
doelcm82 said:
True, but until someone takes it apart it's also far superior tech to all previous wrist-worn HRMS, as far as anyone knows.
Click to expand...

It wouldn't be "superior" because visually we can see the same LED based HRM sensor, even down to the same green lights as the Fitbit Surge/MS Band etc.

Unless there is some brand new never been seen or announced before tech in it (which Apple would have surely tooted their own horn about) it's the absolute safest bet that it's a tech that is "equal to", rather than "greater or less than" what is already on the market.

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Soccertess said:
I wouldn't never expect Samsung to test a product like this, they just release crap and keep releasing different products till they get it right. So good on you Apple on the effort to get a good product out the first time...

I still won't buy it though.... maybe when Apple drops the price or adds more sensors to make it worth that price point...


10 bucks a new watch strap connector comes out in 2 years and makes all those over priced straps useless.... Jono ivey will come out and say.. all new thin connector so we can make the thinnest watch ever, saving 1mm and ****ing all you over. thank you for dropping 500 dollars on your old useless strap...
Click to expand...

2 years? I bet the next gen watch will have a new design that needs a new strap.
 
BS this things among other health gadgets are useless, there is no biometric technology yet. they act like a reminders at best.
 
18,000 hours... that's one serious work out..

I can't wait until a report comes out that says "Apple has secretly being tracking your heath and fitness stats."

Allot of users face's would be the same color as the Apple t-shirts.
 
Tech198 said:
18,000 hours... that's one serious work out..

I can't wait until a report comes out that says "Apple has secretly being tracking your heath and fitness stats."

Allot of users face's would be the same color as the Apple t-shirts.
Click to expand...

Blue??? Why would they turn blue?
 
I'm neither a mathematician nor a statistician, so I'm willing to be shown why my skepticism is way off base by somebody who is an expert in statistics.

But it doesn't seem to me that the numbers are all that significant, especially when the data from those 10,000 workouts was collected over a two-year period. That's only an average of 13 workouts per day.

I would think that for the data to be useful, one would need to study the workouts of hundreds, maybe even thousands, of test subjects, and that would amount to considerably more than 18,000 hours of data.

Again, I'm not an expert in this area, so maybe the figures really are significant. I would love somebody who is to enlighten me.

EDIT: Or, perhaps the phrase "workout sessions" refers not to individual workouts, but workouts featuring several people all at once. In that case, "10,000 workout sessions" could mean "120,000 individual workouts" if a dozen people were being studied at the same time. Still, the 18,000-hour figure seems rather small to me.
 
Last edited:
MrXiro said:
It wouldn't be "superior" because visually we can see the same LED based HRM sensor, even down to the same green lights as the Fitbit Surge/MS Band etc.

Unless there is some brand new never been seen or announced before tech in it (which Apple would have surely tooted their own horn about) it's the absolute safest bet that it's a tech that is "equal to", rather than "greater or less than" what is already on the market.

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2 years? I bet the next gen watch will have a new design that needs a new strap.
Click to expand...

Considering how much variance there is in the HRM in between those supposedly all similar wrist worn monitors, many not working all that well, I'd say that the actual implementation matters A LOT. So, it isn't that simple.

The Gear fit, and many other watches or bands basically can't measure your heart rate post exercise even if you stop running as per link down here.

Reading heart rate from the wrist while moving is also a big problem.
Skin tone is in general a big issue.

http://www.cnet.com/news/how-accurate-are-wristband-heart-rate-monitors/

Ironically, the S5 which has a fingertip sensor is very accurate (though you wouldn't want to hold on in that awkward position while you run..).

In fact, calibration of result from wrist will be very tricky to give good result. This is were testing in many conditions, possibly even varying the light intensity vs those conditions, comes in.

Also, notice that the Apple watch doesn't lie flat on the wrist like many other watches, but have this smaller round bulge that slightly digs into the wrist. I'm thinking there is a reason for that.

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japanime said:
I'm neither a mathematician nor a statistician, so I'm willing to be shown why my skepticism is way off base by somebody who is an expert in statistics.

But it doesn't seem to me that the numbers are all that significant, especially when the data from those 10,000 workouts was collected over a two-year period. That's only an average of 13 workouts per day.

I would think that for the data to be useful, one would need to study the workouts of hundreds, maybe even thousands, of test subjects, and that would amount to considerably more than 18,000 hours of data.

Again, I'm not an expert in this area, so maybe the figures really are significant. I would love somebody who is to enlighten me.

EDIT: Or, perhaps the phrase "workout sessions" refers not to individual workouts, but workouts featuring several people all at once. In that case, "10,000 workout sessions" could mean "120,000 individual workouts" if a dozen people were being studied at the same time. Still, the 18,000-hour figure seems rather small to me.
Click to expand...

In statistics, if your sampling is representative of the population you want info on, you need a lot less than that number of sessions to make it meaningful. The difficult part is the sampling and clearly defining what your testing. They probably have quite a bit of background info on a huge pool of potential subjects/Apple employees even before they send them to the tests.
 
This is all for marketing and PR nonsense.

"Oh look, people running on machines. How amazing our product therefore is."

...or not.
 
Doesn't "they didn't know what all this was for" mean they weren't wearing the bloody watch!?

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jimthing said:
This is all for marketing and PR nonsense.

"Oh look, people running on machines. How amazing our product therefore is."

...or not.
Click to expand...

Or visit another forum daily and sleep better at night.

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macs4nw said:
Solid homework. Nothing surprising here..... reminds me of that glimpse into Apple's wireless/cellular testing lab they revealed after the ruckus about the so called "antenna gate"..... God, I hate that word.....
Click to expand...

To be fair the then CEO didn't help things by replying to someone's email telling them they're holding it wrong. Even Gruber though Jobs handled the whole thing badly and especially at the press event where Jobs took on the tone of blaming the user by petulantly suggesting they get a free case.
 
I hope the HRM is accurate on the Apple watch. These monitors seem to vary, form product to product.
 
jimthing said:
This is all for marketing and PR nonsense.

"Oh look, people running on machines. How amazing our product therefore is."

...or not.
Click to expand...

Exactly, pure propaganda, what's next, Nightline visiting the FoxConn assembly line to see how the craftsmanship can still take place while standing for, oh that's right, we won't be seeing Ive wax poetic about that process in the next Apple product video.

Anyway that Apple Fitness dude added some more BS, he stated only you get to decide which apps can take your health data, but are there any apps that would function fully without taking your health information, doubtful.
 
I worry that all this statistics can be misused to prove whatever you believe is the best for health. My hope is that machine learning on the data might actually tell us that what we believe today, and would have misused the stats to show, does not actually follow and that some totally different combination of training, food and rest is actually best for us. :D
 
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