Samsung's Simband and SAMI platform connects biometric data -- heart rate, pulse, oxygen levels, hydration -- to the cloud, which will make it easy for you to track your health. It almost works like going to have a checkup done at a doctor's office -- and it's open source, so other people can create the sensors for it while Samsung controls the software.
Apple (AAPL 0.06%) recently made its own move into the space with its Health Kit framework, which is similar to Samsung's SAMI platform in that it creates a central store for health information. However, the two companies' strategies differ in other areas, such as their hardware approach. For example, Samsung wants Simband's parts to be modular, meaning hardware and different sensors could be swapped out.
Simband is more of an idea than a real product -- it won't be commercially available. Yet it does show how Samsung's vision of wearables could vary dramatically from Apple's. The company famously goes to great extents to make sure its products can't be opened, let alone allowing users to swap in new hardware like sensors. It's essentially certain that a potential iWatch release later this year won't be modular.
In this episode of The Next, Motley Fool tech analyst Eric Bleeker and Rule Breakers analyst Simon Erickson talk about the potential for the Samsung Simband and its SAMI platform.
