According to a recent report from Frost & Sullivan, in 2015 the market for mobile health applications will be about $100 million bigger than the market for remote patient monitoring. Frost estimates that mobile health apps will reach $392 million in 2015, while remote patient monitoring will hit $294.9 million. Frost estimates that mobile health apps earned revenues in 2010 of $230 million, a higher than expected total. Remote patient monitoring generated $126.8 million in revenues.
Despite this positive industry growth, the firm’s report predicts significant challenges ahead for those working on health apps, including regulatory issues, privacy and security concerns, and consumer awareness.
Frost & Sullivan’s remote monitoring report finds that the emergence of consumer-focused monitoring products, compared to traditional telemedicine, to be a major factor in the industry’s growth. According to the report, remote monitoring has had a double digit growth rate over the past decade, but hasn’t yet reached its “billion dollar potential”. Current business models have “limited potential” in the upcoming market, Frost states.
Other analyst firms have recently published similar findings that line up with Frost & Sullivan’s predictions. A report by ABI Research released last November predicted that the market for health and fitness apps will cross $400 million in 2016. ABI believes the rise of apps for connected wearable fitness devices will be a primary factor in the industry’s growth (it predicted 80 million such sensors by 2016). ABI also predicted that there will be more than 1 billion annual health-related app downloads by the year 2016.
A recent report from Berg Insight found that approximately 2.2 million patients globally used a home-based remote monitoring device as of the end of 2011. However, the metric only accounts for devices that use fixed wireless, cellular, and fixed line connections; devices that connected via smartphones or PCs were not included in the statistic. In addition, the number of home health monitoring devices in use with embedded cellular connectivity increased from 420,000 in 2010 to about 570,000 in 2011, and is expected to hit 2.47 million in 2016.
“Today, we are seeing the tip of the iceberg in the U.S. mHealth market’s potential,” stated Frost & Sullivan Senior Industry Analyst Zachary Bujnoch in a press release. “Despite the hype, mobile apps are the single-biggest digital channel since the ‘90s and the Web.”
”Over buildup and misrepresentation have made [the remote monitoring market] confusing and complicated,” added Bujnoch. “However, significant revenue and outcomes remain for those who can sift through fact and fiction.”