Global mHealth app services market to reach $26 billion by 2017
Courtesy of FierceMobileHealthcare by Greg Slobodkin
Within the next four years, the mobile healthcare services market will begin the commercialization phase and reach $26 billion worldwide as smartphone apps enable the mHealth industry to monetize these services, according to an announcement about a new report by mobile research firm research2guidance.Forty-two percent of the estimated 97,000 mHealth applications currently available in app stores adhere to the paid business model and given that more traditional healthcare providers are joining the mobile apps market, the report forecasts that business models will broaden to include healthcare services, sensor, advertising, and drug sales revenues.”With the growing sophistication level of mHealth applications, only 9 percent of the total market revenue in the next five years will come from application download revenue,” states research2guidance analyst Patrick Houck in a written statement. “84 percent of total mHealth application market revenue will come from related services and products such as sensors.”
For right now, according to the report, the top mHealth publishers generate more than three million free and 300,000 paid downloads in the United States on Apple’s iOS platform. However, research2guidance believes that the reach on other platforms and in other countries differ significantly but also demonstrate the increase of business potential for mHealth apps.
“Not only are consumers taking advantage of smartphones to manage and improve their own health, a significant number (15 percent) of mHealth applications are primarily designed for healthcare professionals,” states the report. “These include CME (Continued Medical Education), remote monitoring and health care management applications.”
A recent report from Transparency Market Research concludes that the most impactful trend in the global mHealth market is the growth in remote patient monitoring. In 2012, the monitoring services segment had the largest share of the mHealth market (63 percent), a trend the firm sees continuing.
In addition, driven by the increasing adoption of smartphones and rising incidences of chronic diseases, the global mHealth market will reach $10.2 billion by 2018 from the 2012 level of $1.3 billion, a compounded annual growth rate of 41.5 percent from 2012 to 2018, the firm states.
To learn more:
– read the announcement
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