"fitness apps" articles

One of the greatest turnaround stories in the digital health space in 2017 is WeightWatchers. The iconic brand, traditionally associated with in-person weight loss meetings and beautiful TV commercials boasting celebrity testimonies, suffered badly between 2013-2015 when fitness technology vendors like Fitbit lured away its young customers and new weight loss startups leveraging digital services and lower prices chipped away its core customer base. At one point in late 2015, many pundits...

Some of the most interesting news to come out of CES this year had to do with virtual reality. With the upcoming release of the Windows Holographic System and VR headsets for around $300, it seems like 2017 may be the year that VR goes mainstream. But what does this mean for fitness and healthcare? One example of what we can expect in terms of fitness is VirZOOM. The VirZOOM platform includes a stationary bicycle that works in combination with a VR headset and accompanying software...

We recently released a  complimentary whitepaper  examining the top trends in the connected home, health, and mobile industries.  Top 10 Consumer IoT Trends in 2017 , which features insight from Parks Associates’ analyst team, examines key topics driving growth and monetization of the IoT. Wearables and smart watches are expanding as healthcare tools and will be integrated with other IoT applications. The market for smart watches, and for wearables...

We recently released a complimentary whitepaper examining the top trends in the connected home, health, and mobile industries. Top 10 Consumer IoT Trends in 2017 , which features insight from Parks Associates’ analyst team, examines key topics driving growth and monetization of the IoT. Consumerization of healthcare services and devices drives integration with smart home ecosystems and new business models. Connected healthcare is taking a more prominent role in the...

Fitness device use is most frequent among owners with active gym memberships with no cancellation plans Over one in three fitness tracker and/or smart watch owners have an active gym membership and do not plan to cancel. Past research from Parks Associates has found that many as 10% of fitness tracker and smart watch owners have canceled or plan to cancel their gym memberships as a result of using their device. However, new research is showing that high device usage rate of active...

It's no secret—the wearables market isn't doing as well as it should be right now. According to Parks Associates' estimates, the leading smart watch—the Apple Watch—experienced a YoY sales decline of ~53% in Q3 2016. Even with the Q4 release of the Apple Watch Series 2, Apple may be on track for moderate growth in 2016 relative to its 2015 debut. Compare this to Fitbit, the leading fitness tracker: as per Fitbit's SEC filings, its sales grew 21% YoY in the nine months ending October...

New research from Parks Associates shows that among those of child-rearing age, the presence of children at home correlates with higher adoption of health and wellness devices. In general, adoption of wellness/fitness devices is highest among the young, those with high incomes, and those with children living at home. Almost 40% of those ages 18-24 own a wellness/fitness device, compared to 30% of the general population. 41% of households earning $100k or more annually...

After a week-long rumor mill about Fitbit acquiring the struggling smart watch maker Pebble, the suspense ended today when Fitbit announced that it is acquiring Pebble’s software assets and IPs , not the latter’s hardware business. Though it is a smart move to skip Pebble’s hardware business, the rationale for Fitbit to acquire Pebble’s software business remains unconvincing to me. We don’t know the price tag of the deal so have no idea how much value Fitbit attaches to...