Amazon is reportedly getting into the wearables space. It would help the company learn more about customers, and potentially corner the market on a demographic of older, sicker users.
Amazon is reportedly considering a health-tracking wearable — and a lot of people in the health industry think it makes perfect sense.
The space is extremely crowded, and companies like Apple and Fitbit have been marketing health-tracking wearable devices for years. But Amazon is considering making its own move in the space, Bloomberg reports, with a device that can discern the wearer’s emotional state from the sound of his or her voice, among other things.
The device might never reach consumers. Amazon, like most tech companies, frequently tests ideas internally that never see the light of day.
But it’s likely that Amazon will try, despite the competition and the challenges of developing new hardware. Here’s why it’s a no brainer for the company.
A wearable device would let Amazon collect new types of data about customers to target products and advertisements to them more effectively.
Today, Amazon can theoretically collect lots of health data about its customers from their buying patterns. It sells over-the-counter medicines, glucometers and other health products via its marketplace. It could analyze dietary habits based on buying patterns at Whole Foods. And it has basic demographic information, which has some correlations to health and life expectancy.
But Amazon has no way to know about its users’ habits once they stop shopping on Amazon, or engaging with an Echo device. It lacks information about its users on the go: Their commutes, lifestyles, social lives and fitness levels.
Meanwhile, other companies are garnering those insights, as wearables become increasingly popular.
“Health wearables have the potential to become as essential to consumers as the iPhone, and Amazon may be soon by competing with Apple as they both increase their focus on healthcare,” said Bill Evans, managing director of Rock Health, a health-tech research and investment firm.
