Apple CEO Tim Cook apparently isn't being too shy about his company's future hardware plans.
The Apple chief executive has been spotted on Apple's campus wearing a prototype of a device that track your glucose levels, CNBC is reporting, citing people who claim to have seen Cook wearing the unannounced product around the company's headquarters. The device is attached to the Apple Watch and is designed to be worn by people who have diabetes, the report says.
The Apple Watch 3 is expected to launch this fall, and this could be one of the highlight features, or at least an optional one.
Apple has been rumored for months to be working on new tools that would help those with diabetes monitor their glucose levels. It's part of a broader effort by Apple to play a bigger role in the healthcare industry through technology. Like Apple, Alphabet and other major companies also see a market opportunity in the healthcare sector and have been exploring ways to play a larger role there with technology.
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According to the CNBC report, Cook hasn't been shy about his testing. In February, in fact, he told students at the University of Glasgow that he had been wearing a medical device that could continuously monitor his glucose. He didn't say, however, whether it was an Apple device.
The source on the Apple campus told CNBC that Cook is indeed wearing a device and confirmed that it was an Apple prototype.
Technology companies, including Apple, have said that they're exploring ways to help those with diabetes. Traditionally, diabetes patients have needed invasive tools to tell them what their glucose levels are. But as sensors have improved and technology advanced, Apple and others are exploring ways to accurately measure glucose with non-invasive tools. An attachment to the Apple Watch could be one of those options.
For Apple, the value is clear. There are millions of people around the globe who have diabetes, and if Apple can deliver them a new tool that accurately measures their glucose levels, the company could stand to generate significant revenue on that investment.
Still, there was no word from CNBC's sources on whether Apple might release a glucose tracker and when that could happen.
