Samsung is investing in health tracking.
The news: The global electronics company unveiled its latest innovations spanning wearables, sensors, and AI.
- The $399 Galaxy Ring monitors sleep, activity, heart rate, and menstrual cycle to deliver an Energy Score and personalized recs.
- Its new Galaxy Watch series features an Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs) index, decoding metabolic health and biological age.
Putting rivals like Oura on notice, Samsung’s smart ring doesn’t require a subscription. Advancing AGEs, it’s also looking to leapfrog Apple in the race to noninvasive glucose monitoring.
End-to-end. More than a single device or feature, tech titans like Samsung, Apple, and Google want to build comprehensive health ecosystems.
With users locked in across software, smartphones, and wearables, health data flows to a central hub, fueling new features and advanced AI.
In the near term, incremental upsells benefit the bottom line. In the long run, the prospect of achieving medical device status and capturing healthcare dollars justifies the investment.
Looking ahead: For Big Tech, smart rings and watches are relatively small markets — even as they surpass billions in value. To pan out, their bets must return trillions of dollars, which means we’re just getting started.