Healthcare’s Wearable Revolution: Hot Market
Dan Carroll, Motley Fool
The next health care blockbuster may be closer than you think. The best investors consistently reap gigantic profits by recognizing true potential earlier and more accurately than anyone else. Let me cut right to the chase: There is a product in development that will revolutionize not how we treat a common chronic illness, but potentially the entire health industry. Analysts are already licking their chops at the sales potential.
Mobile’s health maintenance revolution Of course, the best way to cut back on growing health care costs is through prevention – and nutrition and exercise data on mobile devices and wearables could be the biggest and most popular factor in keeping people healthy.
Apple might be the largest company to strike gold in the mobile fitness sphere. The tech giant’s rumored iWatch has investors keeping both eyes on the wearable tech market, an area that Credit Suisse last year projected could grow to $50 billion in the next three to five years. RBC Capital Markets said that an iWatch could earn Apple up to $10 billion in sales, boosting the stock by an estimated $35 to $45.
This new technology is valuable to more than just investors, however. A report from the Wall Street Journal earlier in June pegged Apple’s rumored iWatch to provide 10 fitness- and health-tracking sensors. It’s a potential move by Apple that will cater to the health niche in order to counter wearable smart bands already announced by rivals such as Samsung, which plans to release its own Gear smartwatch on July 7. Integration with the plethora of nutrition and exercise apps already available would allow consumers to centralize data on healthy living right on their mobile devices. Along with health tracking apps such as Apple’s recently unveiled HealthKit, smart bands could be a revolution in health maintenance, allowing consumers to cut down on their doctor bills while taking their health into their own hands.
Healthcare – coming to your home? Mobile’s already taken the tech world by storm, but the potential of technology being used to transform health care is a giant opportunity to consumers, physicians, other health care providers, and investors alike. While it may take a few years and a few new innovative products boasting new designs to complete the shift, the reality is that smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices could mean huge health care savings for all in the near future. Allowing consumers to manage their own health better through maintenance, tracking, and remote visits with doctors, furthermore, should help patients take and maintain better control. For the companies embracing this trend now, that opportunity could become a windfall for savvy shareholders down the road.
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