Key takeaways
- Apple wound down its AI-powered virtual health coach project (“Mulberry/Health+”) and will ship features incrementally inside the Health app instead.
- A leadership shift (Eddy Cue overseeing health after Jeff Williams’ retirement) is driving a push to move faster and be more competitive.
- Competitive pressure is rising from Oura and Whoop (stronger app-driven insights), plus broader ecosystem rivals like Samsung and platforms like Strava.
- Apple will still reuse investments: Health content studio videos, personalized Health suggestions, and gait analysis via iPhone camera may roll out sooner as standalone features.
What Happened?
Apple scaled back its planned AI-based virtual health coach service (internally “Mulberry,” also referred to as “Health+”) in recent weeks. Instead of launching a single bundled subscription-like offering, Apple plans to release parts of the feature set gradually within the existing Health app. The move follows a leadership change in Apple’s health organization, with services head Eddy Cue taking over oversight after Jeff Williams retired.
Why It Matters?
For investors, this is a signal that Apple is rethinking how to win in services-adjacent wellness, a category that could expand recurring revenue but is getting crowded fast. The pivot suggests Apple wasn’t confident the all-in “coach” product was differentiated enough versus best-in-class wearables and apps that deliver more actionable insights. It also hints at execution pressure: shipping features piecemeal can accelerate time-to-market and reduce “big launch” risk, but it may dilute the narrative of a major new paid service and slow near-term monetization. Longer term, Apple’s advantage remains distribution (iPhone + Watch + Health app), but the market is shifting toward insight quality and behavioral coaching, where competitors are moving quickly.
What’s Next?
Watch for Apple to introduce repurposed Health+ components this year—especially educational video content, new recommendation layers inside the Health app, and potential iPhone camera-based mobility/gait features. Also monitor whether Eddy Cue adjusts Fitness+ positioning or pricing, and how Apple responds to AI-native entrants like OpenAI’s health tools. The key question for Apple’s health strategy will be whether it can deliver genuinely superior, trusted coaching and insights—without turning it into a slow, fragmented rollout that competitors outpace.
