Imagine 20 years from now and ask yourself: What was Apple’s biggest impact on the world? Since the return of the profligate Steve Jobs in 1997, the Californian company has unveiled a series of innovations that have had a powerful impact on the way we use technology today.

Apple’s influence is vast and its market power means it is a consultant to companies and governments around the world. It has many products that have had a lasting impact on our lives, not the least of which is iPhone and how it changed the smartphone industry. Then there’s the iPod and iPadwhich created entirely new categories.

Despite all these successes, I think Apple’s biggest lasting impact is in an entirely different category: Apple Health. To understand why, we need to look briefly at some key moments in Apple’s history that have shaped its direction today.

A brief history of Apple’s device portfolio

Think back to the first question; your mind may have immediately jumped to the iPhone, or maybe the thought of the iPod brought a smile to your face. Apple has a long history of creating products that either overhaul entire categories or create new categories of their own.

The iPhone is the best example of this. In 2007, Apple introduced the first iPhone, and once it went on sale, it changed your smartphone forever. No more styluses and resistive displays – hello fingers and capacitive screens. Within a year we had the App Store, then there was FaceTime, Siri, Touch ID and Face ID. And then removing the headphone jack.

It’s not just the iPhone. The iPod had a similar impact and helped usher in a digital age of music, and no one has come close to replicating the iPad’s success in the tablet space. For all these successes, there is one product and one area that no one has been able to compete with Apple. That thing is Apple Health.

All roads lead to Apple Health

Apple’s Glowtime event in September had a lot of announcements. From iPhone 16 series TO Apple Watch Series 10 and the new one AirPods 4the company unveiled a lot of new products. It also revealed updates to others including a new color for the Apple Watch Ultra 2and only one update for AirPods Pro 2.

In the long run, Apple’s Glowtime event will be remembered for that one-of-a-kind update: AirPods Pro 2 can now perform a clinical hearing test, and soon they’ll be able to act as hearing aids.

We all know people who have lost or have limited function in one or more senses, and they all act the same: at some point, there is a denial that there is a problem. This is due to more than just denial of the problem; hearing aids are feared because they are ugly, expensive and cumbersome, and no one likes going to the doctor.

Now consider the AirPods Pro 2. Apple has sold tens of millions of pairs of these, and we’re all used to seeing them in people’s ears. Diagnosing a hearing problem and getting a pair of hearing aids can cost thousands of dollars, but for $249 (if you don’t get one of the best AirPods deals), you can get the same thing. This will transform millions of lives overnight and you are more likely to convince a friend or loved one in denial to test using their pair of AirPods.

Apple Watch is the crown jewel of Apple Health

AirPods Pro 2 is a great example of how any product can be used to improve certain aspects of health, but the crown jewel of the Apple Health ecosystem is the Apple Watch. This year was the 10th anniversary of the first Apple Watch, and it has been documented to have saved millions of lives, including mine. The iPhone changed our lives, but did it save them?

The Apple Watch is the most important device Apple sells right now. Of all the products on Apple’s shelves, it’s the one that improves your life considerably. There’s a suite of health features that could save your life, including high and low heart rate notifications, EKG, fall detection and blood pressure monitoring (at least in older generations).

There are also features that can detect AFib and other heart conditions, car accident detection, and sleep apnea detection. This last feature is new for this year and is designed to help diagnose sleep apnea in the millions of undiagnosed patients globally. Apple’s Health app can sync data to and from most fitness apps—unlike the plethora of Android equivalents that don’t sync with as many apps—and can even sync your medical records.

The suite of Apple Health features available today is already incredibly powerful. Looking down the road for the next few years, it’s only going to get better.

The future for Apple is in Healthcare

Smartphone sales have stagnated in recent years. Although 1.14 billion smartphones were sold globally in 2023 and there are still millions of new customers coming online for the first time, many of those people won’t be able to afford an iPhone. For Apple, the iPhone is designed to bring customers into its ecosystem, but there aren’t many places where Apple can innovate, at least until it makes a foldable iPhone.

Now consider the Apple Watch. It’s several generations younger than the iPhone, and the entire wearables market is nascent compared to smartphones. Crucially, Apple is still a dominant leader, with Apple Watch shipments accounting for 26% of all wearable shipments, according to a recent report from Counterpoint.

I can’t tell you what long-term features Apple is working on for the iPhone, but Apple is working on some Apple Watch features that will be transformative. These include cuff-less blood pressure monitoring and non-invasive blood glucose monitoring. Samsung and Google are also working on these features, and all three companies are facing big pharma in a race to be the first to bring these features to market.

In particular, non-invasive glucose monitoring is considered the holy grail for treating diabetes. I use a continuous glucose monitor that inserts a small needle into my arm and transmits glucose readings to my phone. I change the sensor every 10 days and it costs hundreds of dollars a month for the sensors even with a premium health insurance plan.

Like AirPods Pro 2 and hearing aids, consider buying a single device from Apple that has done it all. These are just two examples of the many ways Apple could become your health provider. The company is on a journey to democratize healthcare for everyone, and in doing so, its impact on our lives will grow ever stronger.

I’m not the only one who thinks so. At the end of 2020, Tim Cook dived into the Apple Watch and Apple’s approach to Health. He confirmed that the company was initially surprised by how many customers called Apple Health life-changing, prompting him to say, “I think looking back in the future, you’re going to answer this question: Apple’s most important contribution mankind had was healthy.”

Being already an Apple Health beneficiaryI can’t wait to see what Apple — and Samsung and Google — do over the next few years to continue to grow the mobile health space.