Even when it does come out “later this year” as a 1-lead ECG it’s not going to be anywhere near as accurate as the one in your doctor’s office (12-lead, 10 electrodes). I would treat it as a novelty and the FDA classifies the Apple Watch for “informational use only” rather than a actual diagnostic device.
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ECG Dilemma
- Thread starter chiefs1968
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Speaking of other manufacturers, imagine how you would feel if they actually REMOVED a main feature that was one of the main reasons you bought it, and that you frequently used!
Let’s talk about Amazon.....at the Echo Show product launch and subsequent advertising YouTube access was highly featured, and I bought 4 of them to add to my Echo/Homekit home automation setup. Couldn’t be happier, so imagine how outraged I was when a few months later my Echo Shows lost YouTube, all because of petty bickering between Amazon and Google. Turns out Amazon illegally bypassed YouTube T&Cs. OUTRAGED, I tell you!!! 😡 😀
DukeSilver79
macrumors regular
Off topic, but that's why I own echos all over the house, but haven't bought the shwo or spot models yet.
tromboneaholic
Suspended
Agreed, but how many lives do you think it will save (in addition to the lives that have already been saved by Apple Watch)?
gwhizkids
macrumors G5
Did no one get my Stevie Wonder reference? Disappointed!
I just thought you were a poet, and didn’t know it.
Apple releases a new Macbook Pro and then, after AMD announced new GPU an updated version a couple of months later: "I'm so pissed, I bought a MBP a while ago... why didn't Apple tell me something new is coming out any time in the future, even before the manufacturer of the GPU gave a release date. I would have waited a couple of months to over a year... shame on Apple for not announcing some possible future product".
Apple shows a new version of the watch, has a working feature and needs a little longer to sort out a few things. Specifically says it will be available via software update within a given time frame: "I'm so pissed, I bought a watch even though Apple clearly stated it's a feature not available right away, but will arrive in 2018. Shame on Apple for announcing a feature that will be available by the end of the year via a free software update".
🙄
Apple shows a new version of the watch, has a working feature and needs a little longer to sort out a few things. Specifically says it will be available via software update within a given time frame: "I'm so pissed, I bought a watch even though Apple clearly stated it's a feature not available right away, but will arrive in 2018. Shame on Apple for announcing a feature that will be available by the end of the year via a free software update".
🙄
haruhiko
macrumors 604
ECG will be Apple's AirPower. And it will not be even available worldwide. Probably one country a year like Apple Music / Apple Pay / HomePod, etc.
StumpyBloke
macrumors 603
tromboneaholic
Suspended
I'm sure Apple would have preferred to release the ECG feature to everyone at once, especially because it only requires a software update since the hardware is already in place.
It was the first stand-alone device to receive clearance in the US. Apple has been reported to be moving through the approval process in other countries, so it could be one of the first solutions offered in those countries as well. I can imagine some countries (I'm looking at you China) may give preference to approving paperwork from local companies.
Later this year is too vague and should not be tolerated. I find it disrespectful to customers. An exact deadline should be given or at least the month. After AirPower I don't trust Apple execs anymore. Tim Cook could even swear it and I still wouldn't trust him.
gwhizkids
macrumors G5
The amount of entitled whining on this thread is incredible. Apple has no obligation to tell you anything about their impending product and feature releases. Period.
If they don’t meet their own self-imposed deadline, then we can talk. Until then, stuff it.
If they don’t meet their own self-imposed deadline, then we can talk. Until then, stuff it.
newellj
macrumors G3
I've posted this before - Cook reiterated this explicitly in the Q4 earnings call (quote below):
Later this year, the ECG App will be available to Apple Watch Series 4 customers in the U.S., giving them the ability to take an electrocardiogram any time, right from their wrist. And for U.S. customers with Apple Watch Series 1 and later, WatchOS will soon enable periodic checks for irregular heart rhythms that may be suggestive of AFib. These are unprecedented and potentially life-changing features, showing how Apple Watch is not only an indispensable communication and fitness companion but also an intelligent guardian for your health. More broadly, we see this as just one further example of the kind of contribution we can make in the health space and we look forward to making more in the future.
Cryates
macrumors 68040
People need to understand the delicacy, and details involved with having this level of tech approved and ready for mass distribution. They are likely still working through some final hurdles/details.
OLDGUYWITHAHIFI
Suspended
If someone said they owed you money and would pay you back before the end of the year but then waited until December 31 to repay you wouldn’t you be a little upset or frustrated? Or let’s say you agreed to do business with someone. Say they told you they were going to do something and then waited till the last minute to get it done would you still hire that person?
I can’t believe the number of people who will make excuses for a company as a show of blind allegiance.
That’s why companies get away with it, we don’t hold them accountable. Until then I guess I’ll stuff it...
If he said it in an earnings call, it will happen or there will be big problems. We're not talking about some fly by night company that *can't* do it. We're talking about one of the biggest companies in the world with billions of dollars of cash on hand. This feature will launch in the time frame indicated even if it means throwing massive amounts of money at it. Period. I'll put my AW4 in a Blendtec, mix the resulting powder into a protein shake and drink it if it doesn't.
tromboneaholic
Suspended
If it was the first time someone had ever paid someone back, and it required governmental approval to do so, I would be happy they met the deadline.
I doubt that number is, or will be, terribly high in either case.
What this is, is a really cool feature, already available through other means, that is a precursor of things to come. A lot of good things are going to happen around wearables that could save money and improve lives.
But, that said, it looks like Apple is not going to make the deadline, and it is very fair to be upset by this. At some point, companies/people need to be accountable for what they say. I’m aware that’s not, exactly, how things work these days but it is how they should work. Apple needs to get this done.
oneMadRssn
macrumors 603
What were Apple's alternative options?
- Not mention the ECG feature at all. But then the sensors would be discovered in a teardown, people would speculate about it, false information would be shared and assumed, it would be a mess. This way, they got ahead of the narrative, even if the feature wasn't ready.
- Launch the AW4 without ECG and include ECG next year with the AW5. This might have been a better option, but if the feature really could be ready by the end of 2018, that would mean delaying the feature for another 9 months or so. That's 9 months during which their competition could get ahead or beat them to market. Or if they launched the AW5 earlier, people would complain about the AW4 being a dud like the iPad3.
Or do what they did, which was include the hardware and announce the feature. Of the 3 options, I understand why they did what they did.
- Not mention the ECG feature at all. But then the sensors would be discovered in a teardown, people would speculate about it, false information would be shared and assumed, it would be a mess. This way, they got ahead of the narrative, even if the feature wasn't ready.
- Launch the AW4 without ECG and include ECG next year with the AW5. This might have been a better option, but if the feature really could be ready by the end of 2018, that would mean delaying the feature for another 9 months or so. That's 9 months during which their competition could get ahead or beat them to market. Or if they launched the AW5 earlier, people would complain about the AW4 being a dud like the iPad3.
Or do what they did, which was include the hardware and announce the feature. Of the 3 options, I understand why they did what they did.
tromboneaholic
Suspended
Apple Watch keeps spotting cardiac issues and saving lives, this time ...https://appleinsider.com/.../apple-watch-keeps-spotting-cardiac-issues-and-saving-lives...
Teen's Apple Watch may have saved her life - CBS Newshttps://www.cbsnews.com/news/teens-apple-watch-may-have-saved-her-life/
Apple Watch Saves Man's Life After He an Erupted Ulcer | Fortunefortune.com › Tech › Apple
How Apple Watch saved my life | ZDNethttps://www.zdnet.com/article/how-apple-watch-saved-my-life/
How This Apple Watch Feature Saved a Man's Life - Men's Journalhttps://www.mensjournal.com/health.../how-this-apple-watch-feature-saved-a-mans-lif...
Apple Watch saves the life of Florida teen with a life-threatening ...https://bgr.com/2018/05/01/apple-watch-saves-life-chronic-kidney-disease/
Apple Watch helped save the life of a 32-year-old man, doctors say ...https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-watch-saves-life-doctor-says-2018-5
Apple Watch could have saved man's life after it alerts him to strange ...https://www.independent.co.uk › LIFE › Tech › News
How Apple Watch saved one man's life — and how it's empowering ...https://9to5mac.com/2017/12/15/apple-watch-saves-life-managing-heart-attack/
etc...
gwhizkids
macrumors G5
Your examples miss the point: if someone told me they would pay later in the year and paid me on December 31, I would have exactly one person to be annoyed at: me, for not insisting on earlier payment or more precise payment terms. Or if I hired someone and did not specify when the work was to be completed, shame on me.
I'm not making excuses for anyone, here. Apple made a commitment and thus far has not failed to live up to it. The problem here is your expectations.
As I said earlier, if January 1 comes and this feature has not been rolled out, then its an entirely different issue.
I agree with @gwhizkids
Even if it comes a bit late, that’s fine for me, I want it to be right, not right now.
If you absolutely must have the ECG feature right now, you should proceed to see a doctor for a standard ECG. That’s what’s going to happen if you reprt to your doctor that your Apple Watch ECG gavea notification.
It’s clear from the description that the Watch ECG function is not intended to replace a multi-lead ECG examination, and that means that because the Watch hasn’t given an alert, you are ‘healthy’.
The tone of many posts is almost as if people expect the Watch to replace some part of regular health monitoring by a professional. I believe that this is not so.
Even if it comes a bit late, that’s fine for me, I want it to be right, not right now.
If you absolutely must have the ECG feature right now, you should proceed to see a doctor for a standard ECG. That’s what’s going to happen if you reprt to your doctor that your Apple Watch ECG gavea notification.
It’s clear from the description that the Watch ECG function is not intended to replace a multi-lead ECG examination, and that means that because the Watch hasn’t given an alert, you are ‘healthy’.
The tone of many posts is almost as if people expect the Watch to replace some part of regular health monitoring by a professional. I believe that this is not so.
I suspected someone would do this. You know what’s common about all those articles? They are sensational.
When this thing came out people went out looking for these kinds of stories, and sure, they’re a real story, and someone’s life, “may” have been saved. It may also be that in some cases the problems would have been caught anyway or wouldn’t have been fatal, or something else.
I’m not debating that this isn’t a positive thing but the idea that this is going to change the world, etc., is just a dumb way to think about things. Will it make the world a better place? Maybe, even probably, but don’t run around screaming about all the lives it’s going to save.
tromboneaholic
Suspended
In a previous post you referred to it as "a novelty," so we must have different interpretations of the word.
I'm pretty sure everyone knows "it’s not going to be anywhere near as accurate as the one in [a] doctor’s office (12-lead, 10 electrodes)," but the people who go to the doctor for an ECG aren't the people most likely to benefit from this feature on Apple Watch.
newellj
macrumors G3
Why? They would have done just what they promised. No more, but no less.