As Apple continues to build on smart partnerships to blindside companies that have been long serving the healthcare enterprise I sat in on a few Healthcare innovation meetings in the UK last week and learnt that the NHS has just supplied more than ten thousand staff with Nokia Lumia 530 mobile phones (a handset I would only ever consider giving to a sworn enemy) and that the lead of Microsoft’s Enterprise ‘Digital Health’ Strategy engagement working with the NHS didn’t know that Apple has developed the Genius Bar (Apple has had these tech support stations located within it’s stores for more than a decade).
In an interesting talk about Patient Controlled Health Records at the Digital Health and Care Alliance meeting (an enjoyable event put together by Charles Lowe) Dr Ian McNicoll, Director at freshEHR Clinical Informatics and HandiHealth, explained that Apple Health won’t work out because ‘Samsung and Google won’t let them‘ and it really struck me how people underestimate the value of companies that are committed to building trust and educating users on how to get the best from their technology.
I have no doubt Google/Samsung could acquire some interesting Healthcare companies but they couldn’t afford to pay as much as Apple (who currently sit on $178B in cash). It should be clear that when you take Apple’s approach and see your end user as your customer you no longer need to look in the rearview mirror: Apple Health is no more threatened by S Health (Google Health was closed down in 2011) than Apple Pay is being stopped by Google Wallet or Samsung Pay (which hasn’t arrived yet but join me in Barcelona next month for more on this).
