Heart rate monitors lead wearables charge

Whether you call the category by its old-school moniker “wearables” or the relatively new catch phrase “therables,” one thing is for sure: This niche market targeting first-adopter tech geeks and fitness fanatics might not be “niche” for much longer.

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According to a new market report published by Transparency Market Research, the wearable medical devices market is projected to expand at a high compound annual growth rate worldwide of 16.4% from 2015 to 2023, reaching $10.7 billion in 2023.



Heart rate monitors were identified by the report as the largest product segment of the market in 2014, and the fastest growing. “As of Dec. 31, 2015, there were 16.9 million Fitbit active users compared to 6.7 million as of Dec. 31, 2014, for a growth rate of 152%,” acknowledged James Park, FitBit chairman and CEO, earlier this year. “What’s exciting to me is that we added 18 million new registered device users in 2015, of which 13 million, or 72%, were active users at year end 2015,” he said. “While it’s still early in Fitbit’s integration into the larger healthcare world, we believe the connected health and fitness market has great potential to help people to take ownership of their health, and deliver better health outcomes.”



While heart rate monitors may be the fastest-growing, other wearable suppliers, such as NeuroMetrix, are providing wearable solutions that do more than collect data. NeuroMetrix’ Quell provides “wearable,” drug-free pain relief.