After much speculation, Apple has confirmed at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco, California that it plans to soon launch a native health tracking platform.

The tracker – dubbed HealthKit – comes with a user-facing app simply called “Health,” and will feature a number of high-profile collaborations that Apple hopes will break new ground in the fledgling mobile health apps and fitness trackers sector.

The tech giant is working with renowned US health provider Mayo Clinic to integrate medical information via the new platform, which will be part of its new operating system iOS 8 for both iPhones and iPads.

Apple will also consolidate heart rate, blood pressure, weight and other data from a range of apps and devices, including those from long-time collaborator Nike.

“Developers have created a vast array of healthcare devices and accompanying applications, everything from monitoring your activity level, to your heart rate, to your weight, as well as chronic medical conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes.” Apple senior vice president of Software Engineering Craig Federighi said at the event.

“But up until now the information gathered by those applications lives in silos. You can’t get a single comprehensive picture of your health situation. But now you can... HealthKit provides a single place that applications can contribute to a composite profile of your activity and health.”

Despite the announcements, there was no news on the whether the long-awaited “iWatch” will be coming to market any time soon, with rivals Samsung having stolen a march through its
Gear 2 smartwatch.

To read Health Club Management editor Kate Cracknell's leader column for the June edition on the latest developments in the fitness tracking app sector, click here.