It didn't come as much of a surprise so soon after the news broke that Microsoft was dropping support for its Microsoft Band and Microsoft Health Dashboard apps that it was also canning its HealthVault personal health record. While HealthVault was a pretty good product, it really never got the uptake outside of the worried well and corporate wellness markets that it needed to survive.

There are still plenty of PHRs and similar sorts of apps on the market and Microsoft itself is recommending customers have a look around for alternatives. One is Get Real Health, which is offering to let HealthVault users migrate their data over to its Lydia platform and keep the same credentials. For those who have long memories, when Google pulled the plug on its Google Health product it told users to shop around, with one recommendation being HealthVault.