Withings rebrands to Nokia, and wants to change how you talk to your doctor

MWC 2017: Nokia doubles down on health
21394-original
Wareable is reader-powered. If you click through using links on the site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more

After buying Withings last year and making it a key part of its Digital Health business, Nokia has announced it's going all the way: starting this summer, Withings products will be rebranded under the Nokia name.

That's quite a big deal, and will include the entire tech pantheon: fitness trackers, smart scales, home cameras, blood pressure monitors - the lot. As you can see in the picture above, even the Withings Steel HR will soon become the Nokia Steel HR.

Potentially more exciting is the bigger push into connected health that Nokia is making. The company is also planning to launch its Patient Care Platform, which will aim to foster better movement of health data between patients and doctors.

Via connected devices, health professionals will be able to remotely monitor patients with chronic conditions over periods of time and therefore provide more effective, targeted care, negating unnecessary trips to the doctor. Or at least that's the theory.

Withings - soon to be Nokia - devices like its blood pressure monitor and Thermo thermometer will sync with the Health Mate app, and that data will then feed into the wider Patient Care Platform if users permit it to. The platform is currently being trialled by the UK's National Health Service to better understand how remote monitoring can help lower hypertension.

Finally, Nokia is also going to redesign (as well as rebrand) the Withings Health Mate app this summer with new coaching programs that will last eight weeks and focus on a goal of your choosing. It will also make it easier to add devices and share data with others, the company says.

It's obvious that Nokia sees a bright future in connected health, and bringing all of its property under the same name - one that's already widely recognised - seems a smart move. Looks like we're getting a Nokia smartwatch after all...

Withings rebrands to Nokia, and wants to change how you talk to your doctor




How we test



Hugh Langley

By

Now at Business Insider, Hugh originally joined Wareable from TechRadar where he’d been writing news, features, reviews and just about everything else you can think of for three years.

Hugh is now a correspondent at Business Insider.

Prior to Wareable, Hugh freelanced while studying, writing about bad indie bands and slightly better movies. He found his way into tech journalism at the beginning of the wearables boom, when everyone was talking about Google Glass and the Oculus Rift was merely a Kickstarter campaign - and has been fascinated ever since.

He’s particularly interested in VR and any fitness tech that will help him (eventually) get back into shape. Hugh has also written for T3, Wired, Total Film, Little White Lies and China Daily.


Related stories