Apple Watch Ultra 2 devices in Los Angeles, California. Once just a bullet point, health and fitness are now key to how Apple sells the watch. The latest model includes a thermometer to measure body temperature for fertility planning, a sensor to measure blood oxygen levels, algorithms to track sleep and a system to perform electrocardiograms. — AFP
In 2011, a startup called Avolonte Health set up shop in a small office park in Palo Alto, California. The company operated out of a bland, two-story building bristling with security cameras. Engineers interviewing for jobs there weren’t even told what they’d be working on. Once new hires made their way into the lab, however, they learned that they would be trying to revolutionise diabetes care.
Avolonte wasn’t just any health-care company. It was a project of Apple Inc, and its mission came directly from Steve Jobs. Apple’s co-founder and then-chief executive officer, ill with the pancreatic cancer that would take his life near the end of that year, had tasked a group of his key executives to develop a noninvasive blood sugar monitor.
