While rumors pertaining to the next-gen iPhone may be swirling, Apple could pull out the proverbial rabbit from the hat with its future iDevices.
How? The company could be potentially looking to have a user's DNA information stored in their iDevice.
Apparently, at the impending Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) at San Francisco in June this year, Apple is looking to launch a ResearchKit study that will channel all of its attention on DNA studies.
Apple is reportedly teaming up with researchers to create two novel apps that will be based on the company's ResearchKit software platform which it introduced in March 2015.
"Apple is collaborating with U.S. researchers to launch apps that would offer some iPhone owners the chance to get their DNA tested, many of them for the first time, according to people familiar with the plans," reveals a MIT Technology Review report.
The ResearchKit platform aids researchers and hospitals to run medical-based studies on the iPhone as it collects data from surveys or the sensors of the device, such as touchscreen, microphone and more. Through ResearchKit, apps can be created and these basically act as clinical trials.
So, if this rumor is true, then the next feature for the iPhone could well involve users spitting as users will look to send DNA samples via a "spit-kit" to a lab approved by Apple.
Reports suggest that, initially, two studies are being planned by Apple and will be led by the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and New York's Mount Sinai Hospital.
The popularity of the iPhone was instrumental in the success of the ResearchKit. Barely a few days post its launch, Stanford University was able to get nearly 11,000 subjects for a cardiovascular study in just a day. This bears testimony to the reach of Apple's newly-launched platform.
With ResearchKit generating a fantastic response, scientists opine that the next step would be the collection of DNA.
Apple, however, will not test or collect data in the initial studies as the same will be done by its academic partners. Scientists will maintain the information in a cloud, but some data may be available to iPhone users directly on their smartphone.
Ultimately, in the long run, a probability exists that users may be able to share details on their genes just as they do with their location now. Apple apparently intends to eventually "enable the individual to show and share" the DNA data with people per MIT Technology Review's sources.
Photo: Kārlis Dambrāns | Flickr
