Lifestyle diseases spur global mHealth market growth through 2020

An increasing number of lifestyle diseases--from diabetes to hypertension to sleep apnea--is spurring robust growth in the global mHealth device, services and app market, which hit $10.5 billion in 2014 and is on track to increase 33.5 percent annually from 2015 to 2020, reveals a new report published by Allied Market Research.

The report notes mobile-phone based devices, from blood glucose monitors to cardiac trackers, are addressing healthcare tools for the lifestyle diseases. Yet there are market-limiting factors in play, such as low accuracy and infant technologies, according to author Sharayu Dhabale.

Monitoring devices are expected to drive the most mHealth services growth, which bodes well for mobile operators, as those players are dominating the market segment, according to the report. It also bodes well for app makers, which are expected to see the biggest growth in the next five years.

In regard to which lifestyle disease is having the greatest mHealth market impact, cardiovascular disease now is the highest revenue generating segment; it's expected to have the highest growth between now and 2020. Report