- The current level of accuracy glucose meters are required to provide is quite poor. The current standard is +-20% of a lab standard 95% of the time in concentrations above 75 mg/dL. The strip technology used by the iBGStar a pretty big improvement. Not sure if Sanofi has any whitepapers on their site, But worth a look.
- I'm one of the designers of the iBGStar and we considered Bluetooth. We actually have another FDA cleared product that uses Bluetooth, but cost, battery life, and a bunch of technical issues led us to favor the 30 pin.
Feel free to email me if you have any other questions, or ideas!
Regardless, please consider support both eco-systems.
Focus on that and you'll get somewhere.
Disclaimer: I wrote the Android app that would speak to that meter last year. It did blood glucose AND blood pressure and would transmit the data (via a companion app) to Google Health (until they killed Google Health. Sigh.)
Not to mention the fact that many diabetics need to check their blood sugar several times a day, which could introduce a lot of wear and tear on both the glucometer and the iPhone.
I remember when these machines cost several hundred dollars, were difficult to calibrate, and about the size of a netbook, but most glucometers these days are small and can be purchased for as little as $10.
The ability to record and track blood glucose levers over time is a "nice to have" feature, but this data could also easily be stored on the device and transferred to a computer later via a bluetooth or mini-USB connection.
I doubt many endocrinologists would decide to forego capturing the data because, "Oh, hey look, you've got a cool iPhone app."
If the former, I can't see how transferring the results to an Android phone via bluetooth or USB would cause any problems and it would be extremely simple to end up with the data in an SQLite database for analysis using a very simple front-end app.
Having just an iPhone-specific product seems to limit your potential market considerably.