In this day and age, it seems as if there is a smartphone app for just about everything. Apple's (
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Two of the hottest areas in the application development space are physical fitness and preventative health. As of last week, the App Store held more than 6,000 health- and medical-related applications, GigaOM reported. Companies that recognize this trend and develop apps that revolve around their products can dramatically increase their chances of experiencing success.
BodyMedia, a Pittsburgh-based startup that manufactures high-tech body sensors, will soon release an application that is expected to make its signature product more available to mainstream American, according to a recent New York Times report.
Founded in 1999, BodyMedia is a rather mature startup. Although the company has been developing automated body-monitoring products that are considered to be state-of-the-art by health technology experts, the company has struggled to reach the average consumer, the news source noted.
In the past, people who purchased an armband sensor from BodyMedia were forced to download their personal health statistics to a website or purchase a special display. By launching an app with Google (
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The application will enable users to monitor as many as 9,000 different health variables right from their phone. Consumers will be able to track their caloric intake, physical activity level and sleep efficiency while on-the-go.
"It’s a dashboard for the human body, a great viewer into what your body is doing on the fly,” John Stivoric, the company's chief technology officer, told the Times.
Industry leaders and analysts expect that the $249 body-monitoring device will gain some real traction in the consumer market when the company officially launches the app next month.
“BodyMedia has been at it a long time, learned a lot and has accumulated a lot of intellectual property,” Rob McCray, chief executive of the Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance (
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Beecher Tuttle is a Web Editor for TMCnet. He has extensive experience writing and editing for print publications and online news websites. He has specialized in a variety of industries, including health care technology, politics and education. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
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Tammy Wolf
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