News Feature | April 13, 2015

$1.8 Billion Market For Connected Fitness Devices By 2019

Katie Wike

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

Healthcare Wearables

According to a Juniper Research report, the market for connected fitness devices will rise to six times its current amount by 2019.

The current market for connected fitness devices is estimated to be at $320 million. A report from Juniper Research estimates that, in the next few years, that number will multiply rapidly to $1.8 billion by 2019.

iHealth Beat reports an estimated 12.9 million people will use paid services platforms by 2019. Other growth can be attributed to what researchers refer to as “freemium” models which provide a basic application at no-cost but charge for more advanced features. Juniper explains users will want to track their fitness for free but many will pay fees to have their data analyzed.

“Connected fitness and health devices provide a way to collect biometric data, not interaction platforms,” said author James Moar according to MobiHealth News. “People want to interact with the devices at the app level – the draw is the information. Because of this, and the omnipresence of sensors, the importance of the hardware will diminish at a much faster rate than other CE market segments.”

“The ability of smartphones to incorporate device functionalities as apps is both a risk and an opportunity for the smart wireless device market,” Moar writes in a whitepaper. “On the one hand if a device is too dependent on app functionality it could potentially be displaced by app-only offerings (as is the case with more basic fitness tracking devices), but the flexible app platform accompanied by uniform connectivity technologies means that it is easy for consumers to incorporate peripherals into their lifestyles in a way that would not be possible if they were interacting with the device alone.”

Another report showed 40 million Americans use their smartphones to track their fitness. Parks Associates found that one if four heads of household who have broadband internet use apps to track their fitness or caloric intake.