I’m always a bit disappointed when I pitch Backtrack to someone, they seem to love the idea and nod along in agreement, and then cap our discussion with: “Imagine the potential when you break out into a bigger market, like fitness tracking!” I’m disappointed in these situations because it means I’ve failed at communicating our biggest talking point: the magnitude of the problem we’re tackling, and how much bigger the rehab opportunity is than they realize. In a recent meeting with Helge, our General Partner at TandemLaunch, he brought up… Read more Forget fitness. The real killer app for wearable health is rehab. →
Recently while out running I’ve been listening to old episodes of Car Talk, with Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers that Americans will remember fondly from Saturday mornings on NPR. I wanted to share two reader-submitted letters that, while quite humorous, contain a great deal of wisdom relating to startups, ignorance, and the Modern Jackass Phenomenon (as it is now known, thanks to another great radio show, This American Life). The first is a letter submitted by Andy, which led to creation of ‘The Andy Scale’, the scale against which all… Read more Startup Wisdom from NPR’s Car Talk →
In my post last week about whether Samsung should buddy up with the wireless carriers, one of the main points is important enough to warrant its own post. That point… Read more Mobile Net Neutrality will be the kingmaker of Apple versus Google. →
July has not been very kind to Samsung. Between disappointing revenue numbers, weak consumer interest in the S5, and an uphill battle in China, there’s been a fair amount of… Read more Should Samsung make a deal with the devil? (Yeah, probably) →
Despite the ever-ongoing increases in available processing power predicted by Moore’s law, human beings can only pay a finite amount of attention to what’s in front of them at any given moment. Plenty of people realize this, especially concerning the rise of smart watches: at Google I/O recently, we were told that ‘the average Android user pulls their phone out of their pocket 125 times per day.’ Presumably, this is too many times, and Android Wear will alleviate this burden for us to some degree. But let’s not forget why… Read more Smartwatches and the triage nurse problem →
Thought of the day, in visual form: To be followed up on soon…
Yesterday I had the pleasure of chatting with Alex Gramling on his podcast, Starting Good, about what we’re up to at Backtrack. Check it out here:
Last week’s unveiling of HealthKit at Apple’s WWDC provoked a flurry of responses (including my own) about Apple’s strategy moving forward, and what mobile health on an iPhone will look like for the near future. This week’s question is: what does Google’s counter-move look like? Here’s my prediction: the way Google does mobile health won’t resemble the Apple approach at all; instead, it’ll look a lot like Google Now. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure (or for some, the mildly creepy and/or paranoid feeling) of using this… Read more Prediction: Android Health will look a lot like Google Now →
