SmartPhone-Based Fitness and mHealth Device Users to Approach 100 Million by 2018

The next 5 years will see a major shift towards smartphone-based mHealth, where hardware attachments link to companion app on the smartphone, a new report from Juniper Research has found.

The report, "Mobile Health & Fitness: Monitoring, App-Enabled Devices & Cost Savings 2013–2018" forecasts that by 2018 there will be 96 million users of app-enabled mHealth and mobile-fitness hardware devices, up from 15 million this year. In the healthcare sector, App-enabled mHealth will be used to enable services ranging from remote patient monitoring to mobile ultrasound services.

mFitness to Set Pace

The report, however, found that it will be the mFitness sector that will experience strongest growth in the short and medium term. According to the report, this growth will be driven by a motivated target market, an increasing demand for lifestyle consumer applications and a diversifying array of attachments. App-enabled mFitness will therefore reach maturity much more quickly than smartphone-based mHealth, though it ultimately represents a much smaller market in terms of both users and revenues.

Importantly, it will also serve to educate the wider market as to what is possible through smartphone attachments: “As mobile fitness devices become more widespread, they will pave the way for more critical mHealth services delivered through the smartphone,” says the report’s author Anthony Cox. “While mHealth and mobile fitness are two discrete markets — with divergent audiences — increased usage of the former will stimulate wider awareness of the latter”

Further findings from the report include

• Juniper Research forecasts cumulative cost savings from remote patient monitoring of up to 35 billion USD during the next 5 years as the healthcare industry moves towards accountable care.
• Well-documented trials illustrating both health and cost-benefits crucial to convince stakeholders of the value of mHealth.
• Ageing populations and the increased prevalence of chronic disease is forcing healthcare stakeholders to reconsider how healthcare is addressed in both developing and developed markets.

The whitepaper, "Mobilising Healthcare", and further details of the full study "Mobile Health & Fitness: Monitoring, App-enabled Devices & Cost Savings 2013–2018" can be downloaded from www.juniperresearch.com

Juniper Research provides research and analytical services to the global hi-tech communications sector, providing consultancy, analyst reports and industry commentary.