Apple’s HealthKit Delayed, and Communicators Are Left to Explain the Glitch

healthkitReviews of Apple's latest iPhones have been adulatory, as we've come to expect with any product coming out of Cupertino, but it's becoming increasingly popular to note that Apple has not broken any molds lately. While the company's highly anticipated Apple Watch and its nearfield communication platform, Apple Pay, represent entries into new markets, reviewers have noted that the new iPhones are merely excellent, not groundbreaking or innovative.

Perhaps that's because innovation is very difficult.

One of the more pioneering aspects set to roll out with the new iPhones and operating system, iOS 8, is HealthKit, a fitness tracking aggregation platform. Apple has touted the platform as a breakthrough in data aggregation, taking all of the information fitness apps collect and bringing it together in one place for users and their doctors to use in new ways. "It just might be the beginning of a health revolution," Apple says.

But just hours before the iOS 8 rollout began Wednesday night, Apple discovered a bug in HealthKit, forcing the company to pull third-party apps designed to sync with the new service from the App Store. The move sent developers scrambling, and Apple eventually released a statement saying that they hoped a fix would be available by the end of the month.

Now, after all of that posturing about the coming health revolution, it's up to the public relations team at Apple to clean up the very un-Apple-like move (or, is it?) of not having a hyped product ready to go at launch.

Follow Brian Greene on Twitter: @bw_greene