Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

In The News

Today's wearables shaping tomorrow's healthcare

The current popularity of consumer-focused connected health devices, whether fitness-tracking wristbands, smart bathroom scales or simply dedicated apps that run on an existing smartphone, is poised to make more consumers proactive about their well-being but is also set to play a huge role in the future of healthcare.

Research by Parks Associates suggests that 30per cent of US broadband homes already own some form of connected health device and that by 2016, over 32 million US consumers will be actively tracking their personal health and fitness -- either online or via a mobile device of some description.

At the same time, the use of wearable devices in the health and medical field, for monitoring vital signs such as insulin levels and blood pressure, is also growing and, according to Harry Wang, Parks Associates director of health and mobile product research, a converge is coming. Writing in the May edition of the research firm's Digital Health News, he states: "the design trends for wearables in the medical field follow what is happening in the fitness area -- they are becoming more discreet, with more user-centric designs and highly integrated functions."

From the article "Today's wearables shaping tomorrow's healthcare."

Previously In The News

40% Already Use Voice Recognition Software, 70% Satisfied With It

Almost half (40%) of smartphone owners already use voice recognition capabilities from Apple’s Siri, Google Now or Microsoft Cortana, according to a 10,000-person survey of broadband households conduc...

Dish’s Sling Seen Passing 1 Million Users in Cord-Cutting Race

The milestone puts Sling TV ahead of Time Warner Inc.’s HBO Now in total subscribers, according to Brett Sappington, an analyst with Parks Associates, which bases its information on consumer surveys a...

OTT Growth Spreads Across Services

Parks notes that rising stars like Showtime and CBS are making big plays to capture market share in OTT. And MLB.TV has seen increases through partnerships, such as T-Mobile’s offering of a free subsc...

Top Smartwatch Daily Activities: Fitness Tracking, Notifications

The idea of consumers treating smartwatches as voice communication devices to make and receive phone calls hasn’t quite materialized. Rather, smartwatches are being used more as devices for activit...