Apple CEO Tim Cook gestures in the course of the annual developer conference event at the corporate’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, U.S., June 10, 2024.Â
Carlos Barria | Reuters
Apple could launch a connected ring to rival Samsung by 2026, in line with CCS Insight, adding to the U.S. tech giant’s deal with health.
The decision is a component of CCS Insight’s annual predictions report and if it got here true, it will be the primary recent product from the Cupertino giant because the Apple Vision Pro headset launched this 12 months.
“Health has grow to be a fundamental pillar for Apple. In actual fact, I’d go to date as to say, at the purpose that Tim Cook decides to relinquish control and he retires … I would love to think that one among his major legacies from Apple can be around personal health,” Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight, told CNBC’s Beyond the Valley podcast published on Tuesday.
“Given how deeply and personally invested Tim Cook is in health, I believe that a hoop is a really complimentary extension to Apple,” he said, referring to Apple CEO Cook.
Wood highlighted Apple’s deal with health from products just like the Apple Watch with all of its sensors to the most recent AirPods Pro 2 headphones that may turn into hearing aids.
Just like smartwatches, a sensible ring is embedded with various sensors to trace health metrics like heart rate.
Oura was one among the pioneers of the space, but Samsung this 12 months launched the Galaxy Ring, bringing this form of product to a much bigger audience, because it looks to make a much bigger push into the health space.
The Samsung Galaxy Ring costs $399 and adds to the South Korean tech giant’s portfolio of products from smartphones to smartwatches because it looks to maintain users locked into its world of devices.
Apple employs the same strategy with its suite of products attempting to maintain its already sticky customers in its ecosystem of hardware. A hoop would add one other product to that portfolio, Wood said.
Unlike other items of consumer electronics, rings are complicated from a retail viewpoint because people have different sized fingers. Samsung has various sizes and colors of rings and users receive a sample size kit before they purchase a hoop.
Apple differs from Samsung in that it has a big and trendy physical retail footprint which might help any try and sell a hoop product to customers, in line with Wood.
“I also think that their retail footprint is ideally suited to it as well because rings are complex products to get to market,” Wood told CNBC.
Rings are also fashion items. Wood said that Apple’s products still have allure out there.
“Apple is a brand that has a specific amount of kudos when it comes to being a product that individuals are proud to have. And I believe a beautifully designed ring from Apple might be one among those things that is almost a kind of status symbol,” Wood said.
