New iPhone chip paves the way for Apple’s wearable technologies

September 12, 2013 1:45 pm

FT.com

By Tim Bradshaw in San Francisco

A week after Samsung unveiled its pioneering Galaxy Gear smartwatch, Apple has launched a “wearable device” of its own: the iPhone 5s.

A fingerprint reader and industry-first 64-bit processor featured in the latest incarnation of Apple’s flagship smartphone received most of the attention from pundits after Tuesday’s press event. Less noted, but just as significant to Apple’s longer-term innovation, was the inclusion of a new chip that is dedicated to monitoring the motion sensors built into the phone.

The M7 chip, which runs alongside the new iPhone’s main A7 processor, opens up opportunities for developers of health-monitoring gadgets and apps, as well as other connected devices. It also paves the way for Apple’s own iWatch, a wearable fitness tracker and smartphone accessory that is likely to be released next year.

“It means you can have more powerful wearable devices and the phone itself becomes a lot more sensitive to tracking its environment,” says Sarah Rotman Epps, mobile analyst at Forrester Research. “The M7 enhances the iPhone’s core capabilities, and also makes it a better hub for wearable accessories, whether they are made by Apple or anyone else.”

For several years, PCs and mobile devices have included chips dedicated to processing graphics, enabling smoother rendering of games and video while freeing the computer’s main “heart” for other tasks. On a similar principle, the M7 is a “motion coprocessor”, said Phil Schiller, Apple’s marketing chief, that “continually measures the data” coming from the iPhone’s gyroscope, accelerometer and compass “without having to wake up the A7 chip”.

Apple also unveiled a “Core Motion” software interface, which developers can tap to tell in an instant whether the phone – and by extension the person whose pocket it is in – is stationary, walking, running or driving.

“With new software and applications you’re going to get a whole new level of health and fitness solutions never before possible on a mobile phone,” Mr Schiller said on stage on Tuesday.

This threatens to turn wearable devices that simply count steps or track workouts, such as the FitBit or Jawbone’s Up, into mere apps on a phone, some analysts say. Others point out that it could equally enable these companies to create more sophisticated gadgets, like Samsung’s Galaxy Gear.

Nike, from whom Apple recently poached a technology executive, is among the first to create a fitness app using Core Motion, called Nike+ Move.

But as well as enabling external developers, Apple itself envisages a bright future for the M7. The same technology will lie at the heart of its iWatch, according to one person familiar with Apple’s thinking.

Apple does not comment on future products, but such an approach to the development of iWatch would be consistent with the way it has worked in the past, analysts and a previous employee say.

“The M7 is an example of a clever way to start learning about wearables and what consumers want, without getting them to pay for [a dedicated device] right now,” says Carolina Milanesi, mobile analyst at Gartner.

Just as the 64-bit A7 was the result of Apple’s earlier chip designs, the M7 can act as “training wheels” for the internal technology of the iWatch, suggests a former employee of Apple’s mobile devices team.

Based on motion data collected from real-world use of the iPhone 5s, most likely using its own employees as guinea pigs, Apple will be able to optimise its designs for the iWatch – thus reducing the risks inherent in introducing any new technology without large-scale public testing.

By designing its own chips, Apple can build hardware and software that work together better than any off-the-shelf processor, says the former employee.

As well as health applications through M7, the latest iPhones will create opportunities for interaction with other smart devices close by, using enhanced Bluetooth technology. Analysts and entrepreneurs say this short-range wireless technology is given a new lease of life through Apple’s iBeacon software, part of the iOS 7 update that will be available to all modern iPhones next week.

iBeacon allows iPhones to detect proximity to other Bluetooth devices with greater precision and less battery consumption than ever before. With certain peripheral devices, iBeacon will allow GPS-style positioning inside shops, or detect when a person arrives at home, which could be used to automatically trigger light switches or open “smart” door locks.

“We’re experimenting with using iBeacons to deliver unique content available only in-store, directly in front of a product,” says Joel Blackmore, senior innovation manager at Somo, a mobile marketing agency.

“The closer a shopper gets to a product, more content is unlocked”, such as videos, vouchers or reviews, he says.

As a result, says Dom Guinard, co-founder of EVRYTHNG, which sells a technology platform for managing connected products, iOS 7 and the latest iPhones could “truly ignite” the long-promised “internet of things”.