How Apple's M7 Chip Will Shape Up Mobile Health

Earlier this month I wrote a column about mobile devices' impact on mobile health, or mHealth as it is known. I focused on wearables like Fitbit, Jawbone UP, Nike+ FuelBand, and others that monitor activity and sleep, noting how their functionality will most likely be coming to many smartwatches. I posited that Apple will make this a priority if it indeed develops an iWatch and even went as far as suggesting Apple's first wearable might be a dedicated health monitor of some type.

Since I wrote that piece, Apple introduced its iPhone 5s with the M7 coprocessor. This new chip continually monitors motion data using the accelerometer, gyroscope, and compass, and also takes users' ID measurements and optimizes them based on contextual awareness. Apple will provide developers access to the chip via a new CoreMotion API, which should enable a new generation of fitness apps.

At the iPhone launch on September 10, Apple said Nike will use the M7 chip to deliver an app called Nike+ Move. Now instead of having to wear a Nike+ FuelBand to monitor your activity, the iPhone 5s will handle it for you. And once other health and fitness software vendors develop apps using the M7 chip, they too will create a whole host of apps that let your phone monitor your activity. (Existing apps can count steps but are a drain on battery life.)

I don't believe this makes fitness-tracking products obsolete for most people but it should eliminate the need for these wearable devices for iPhone 5s owners. This could add an incentive to buy an iPhone 5s, especially if you consider having to wear a health monitoring device a drag.

This coprossesor is quite interesting for two reasons. The first has to do with the software community. Every time you give developers a powerful processor to program and deliver great tools, their creative juices get flowing and they create some truly innovative apps. The Nike+ Move will be a good start, but I suspect software developers will eventually deliver all types of apps related to health, navigation, and various motion functions given the feature set inside the M7 chip. I understand it also serves double duty in monitoring open apps and some multifunction features in the M7 that ultimately impact longer battery life.

The second thing that makes this chip fascinating is its expansive potential. For example, I could see this chip being used in dedicated health devices for those who do not have an iPhone 5s. And it makes sense that this chip could end up inside any future iWatch. To me it appears this chip could be at the heart of many future Apple wearable devices.

While companion chips have been part of the smartphone landscape for years, the M7 is the first coprocessor to be targeted specifically at mobile health. Its inclusion will most likely cause Apple's competitors to make a mad dash to third-party semiconductor vendors and try to get a similar processor for their smartphones.

On a personal level, the wearable devices I use today have helped motivate me to move and walk more and I believe it has sped up my recovery from my bypass surgery last year. My hope is that with Apple pushing mHealth in its new smartphones, this idea takes root with users and pushes other smartphone vendors to follow Apple's lead and make their devices more mHealth-friendly.