Health and Fitness Apps Now the Focus of Mobile Phone Makers and Social Networking Sites

It seems that the race to have a health and fitness app is escalating. Mobile phones makers and social networking sites have turned their eyes on this particular application in a race to be the leader in the smartphone health and fitness market. Apple has announced their latest app during its developer conference. It is a fitness platform they have named HealthKit.

Controversy with the name HealthKit

There is some controversy going on about this new app of Apple. An Australian firm called HealthKit has just taken the company to task over the use of the name, because, according to the firm’s co-founder, Alison Hardacre, the name is theirs, and is already in use. They said that they bought the domain name back in 2012. They even use it on their Twitter account.

The Australian company’s application is quite the same as what Apple plans to do. It is a health platform that will enable doctors and patients to connect. The version that Apple will be launching will allow its users to use health and fitness applications as well as share data when Apple’s new iOS8 is released.

According to the Australian company, they found out about the use of the name HealthKit when they received an email asking whether they made a deal with Apple or if they were stomped by the technology giant.

It is not yet clear if the Australian start-up will take Apple to court over the clash in the use of the name. Some commentators were pointing out that the use of HealthKit by Apple refers to the name of the API or application programming interface, instead of a product name, as used by the Australian company. Apple has not yet commented on the issue.

Health and fitness apps for other mobile companies

In other news, South Korean firm Samsung is also into the health and fitness bandwagon. They have announced their plans for the Sami and Simband health platforms recently during their San Francisco press conference late in May. According to Samsung, the Samsung Architecture Multimedia Interactions (Sami) will be about taking precise readings for many health-related issues. These include blood flow, heart rate, respiration, hydration, glucose and gas concentrations and galvanic skin response in the blood, aside from several body readings. Samsung said their new platform will also be able to gather data about substances that are carried in the air, and that their device will not go beyond the size of the smartwatches out in the market now. Oxford University senior health researcher, Dr. Aiden Doherty pointed out that at the moment, experts are using costly and bulky equipment to reliably gather these types of data.

Facebook also into the health and fitness app

Facebook is also into the health and fitness applications with the purchase of ProtoGeo. The company, which is based in Helsinki, created the fitness-tracking app, Moves, which taps into the built-in sensors of smartphones to track a user’s activity and the number of calories being burned. Facebook did not reveal how much it paid to acquire ProtoGeo but people in the know are assuming that it is very much less than the company’s other high-profile purchases, since the Finnish company only had 10 employees.

Image credit: aerobics session taken by unknown under Public Domain.