Category: Gadgets

Consumers want wearable technology, but at a lower price

| October 31, 2014

Recent research has revealed that while wearables are drawing interest, most won’t pay over $300 for them.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to find an electronics and mobile devices maker that has not come up with its own version of wearable technology, but while recent studies have shown that many consumers are very interested in this tech, the price tag is creating a barrier to adoption.

Wearables are coming out in the form of everything from smartwatches to clothing, glasses, jewelry, and more.

Despite the fact that there are many different offerings within the wearable technology category, it is clearly an industry that remains in its infancy as companies have not yet come up with the strategy that will ensure that the majority consumers will be willing to buy these devices and like them enough that they will be willing to replace them as new generations of wearables are released. A recent PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) study has provided considerable insight into this struggle.

The research asked 1,000 consumers in the United States about their opinions with regards to wearable technology.

Wearable Technology for lower costWhat it showed was that many Americans do already have one of these devices, at least in some form, and that they have high hopes with regards to their benefits. The data showed that around one in five people in the U.S. currently has some type of wearable technology device, such as a wrist band or a digital pedometer that will connect with their computers or smartphones.

That said, a surprising 56 percent of the people who took part in the PwC study also felt that these mobile gadgets (more specifically, those that allow for bio-feedback such as fitness trackers, sleep trackers, and those that monitor heart rate) will help a person to boost his or her life expectancy by a decade. Equally, just under 42 percent of the participants believed that wearables could help an individual to boost his or her athletic ability and overall fitness level.

That said, while 21 percent of the participants actually own some form of wearable technology device, only 10 percent of the total respondents actually use their gadget on a daily basis. Moreover, there is a price limit to the amount that they would spend. Only 5 percent said that they would be willing to pay $300 for a device in this category, while even fewer – 4 percent – said that they would be willing to pay $500. Only time will reveal whether or not the $349 price tag of the Apple Watch will make that product cost prohibitive.

The market for mhealth apps is ready for a new evolution

| October 31, 2014

According to a recent ABI Research study, these applications are ready to be transformed for the better.

The results of a new study by ABI Research have been released and have shown that as new powerful players such as Samsung, Google, and Apple make their way into the mhealth space, the apps in this category are getting ready to undergo a considerable transformation.

Over the last two years, the movement in these health and fitness based apps has held limited continuity.

A study that spanned two years showed that mhealth apps on the iOS and Android platforms have seen quite a low level of continuity in terms of popularity. As a whole, the popularity of applications is split between the range of the functionality and of the vendors. As this specific market begins to mature, however, it is increasingly believed that there will be a transformation of the apps that make it up.

Mhealth apps will become more important to the sharing of health care data and will link to many types of service.

Mhealth - ABI ResearchThe ABI Research study showed that it will be more commonplace for mobile health apps to be used by patients to share health data with doctors. Moreover, it will be used by way of a range of different connected platforms and devices, for that matter. Platforms will include those such as Google Fit, the HealthKit from Apple, and Epic MyChart, among others.

According to the ABI Research Principal Analyst, Jonathan Collins, “In both categories there has been a good deal of variation between the most popular apps—from quarter-to-quarter and between iOS and Android.” At the same time, Collins explained, there remains a widespread consensus when it comes to the types of mobile apps that are the most popular and that continue to build the drive toward data integration that is collected by way of wearable technology devices. This creates an overall environment in which there are many different players.

At the moment, mhealth apps are headed in a direction toward tracking activity and assisting an individual in meeting his or her general health needs. That said, within the medical category, itself, there is a growing interest in those that will provide medical service connections as well as information.