Will the smartwatch be the key that unlocks connected health?
The market for wearable technology devices is still in its infancy but consumers are already favoring health and fitness applications.
New Parks Associates research published Tuesday shows that just 9% of US broadband households intend to invest in a smartwatch in 2015 and that 40% of shoppers have set a price limit of US$100-US$250.
This is “roughly equivalent to a high-end fitness tracker,” said Harry Wang, director, Health and Mobile Research, Parks Associates. “We are in the early stages in the likely merger of smartwatch and fitness tracker product categories.”
Fitness applications are already proving to be the most popular use cases for smartwatch owners and this could have a huge impact on the future of digital health.
“The smartwatch is a key entry in the connected health market, which is rapidly becoming more oriented toward the end user,” Jennifer Kent, Director, Research Quality & Product Development, Parks Associates, said. “The adoption rate for connected health devices among US broadband households increased from 24% to 27% over the last year, opening the door for connected device manufacturers as well as service providers to take advantage of the growing consumerization in healthcare.”
– AFP Relaxnews
Category: Features, Technology & Devices
