BERLIN, March 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

mHealth services start to leverage apps to become commercially successful

Smartphone applications have begun to enable the mHealth industry to successfully monetize their services. The market for mHealth services has now entered the commercialization phase and will reach $ 26 billion globally by 2017, the new "Global Mobile Health Market Report 2013-2017" by research2guidance says.

Ralf-Gordon Jahns, Head of Research at research2guidance, points out: "Our findings indicate that the long-expected mobile revolution in healthcare is set to happen. Both healthcare providers and consumers are embracing smartphones as a means to improving healthcare."

Top mHealth publishers manage to generate more than 3 million free and 300,000 paid downloads in the USA on the iOS platform. The reach on other platforms and in other countries differ a lot but show also the increase of business potential for mHealth apps.

Not only are consumers taking advantage of smartphones to manage and improve their own health, a significant number (15%) of mHealth applications are primarily designed for healthcare professionals. These include CME (Continued Medical Education), remote monitoring and health care management applications.

Currently there are 97,000 mHealth applications in major app stores, 42% of them adhering to the paid business model.  With more and more traditional healthcare providers joining the mobile applications market, the business models will broaden to include healthcare services, sensor, advertising and drug sales revenues.

"With the growing sophistication level of mHealth applications, only 9% of the total market revenue in the next 5 years will come from application download revenue" explains Patrick Houck Analyst at research2guidance. "84% of total mHealth application market revenue will come from related services and products such as sensors."

The "Global Mobile Health Market Report 2013-2017" by research2guidance is a business guide for traditional healthcare companies, mHealth specialists as well as for mobile operators wishing to successfully engage into the new mHealth market.

Please visit http://www.research2guidance.com for more information.

About research2guidance:

research2guidance is a Berlin-based mobile app economy specialist. The company's service offerings include app strategy consulting, market studies and research.

Contact:
Ralf-Gordon Jahns
research2guidance
+49-30-609-893-362
ralf.jahns@research2guidance.com

SOURCE research2guidance