Nokia Rebrands Withings Digital Health Devices
By Jof Enriquez,
Follow me on Twitter @jofenriq
Nokia is relaunching the entire Withings portfolio of digital health devices this summer under the Nokia brand, the company announced at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona.
Identifying digital health as a "strategic interest," Nokia last year acquired France-based Withings and its suite of activity trackers, thermometers, weighing scales, blood pressure monitors, baby monitors, and associated mobile apps, for about EUR 170 million.
"We are excited to announce that in early summer 2017, our award-winning range of products will transition to the Nokia brand. Nokia is a global brand synonymous with innovation, connectivity and great design—values that Withings shares," Withings states in its web site.
Nokia is also launching a completely redesigned Health Mate app. Besides tracking and collecting health data from connected devices, the new version of the app will now offer customizable, digital coaching programs to spur behavioral change.
"Withings joined Nokia because we share a vision to inspire individuals to take control of their own health. With the full power of a brand recognized for trust, reliability and quality, we will reach more people and impact more lives to help the human family be healthier together,” says Cedric Hutchings, VP of Nokia Digital Health, reports Forbes.
Nokia says it wants to leverage brand equity and become a major player in the Internet of Things and mobile health space, which is expected to be the fastest-growing health care segment from 2015-2020, with a CAGR of 37 percent. Remote monitoring, in particular, is rife with opportunities, as more and more people prefer using mobile and portable connected devices to track their own health, and clinicians want to look at wider data beyond office visits.
Related, Nokia will also debut a Patient Care platform to link up patients with their caregivers and providers. The platform is being tested at the UK’s National Health Service in a 69,000-person study on remote monitoring for hypertension, and by the American Medical Group Association in a 150-person study examining the role of self-measurement in helping patients lower their blood pressure, according to MobiHealthNews.
Nokia also has inked a partnership with Helsinki University Hospital (HUS) to remotely monitor patients with neurological conditions. Since the Withings acquisition in July 2016, it has since added a connected scale and a smart thermometer to its range of connected devices.
“This is what we have been working towards for last several months. We’re ready to travel to the mobile world,” Hutchings told MobiHealthNews. “It’s a completion of our acquisition and it’s a realization of what has been a shared vision of who we are in digital health. Now it’s really clear and consistent that we have come to users to the market under a single brand, and in doing so, we are moving a step further with the application and platform.”