Last year, SurveyMonkey conducted one of their Shakedown surveys about wearable technology. While the sampling was small and hardly scientific, it did reveal an interesting result. When the question was asked “Which type of wearable device interests you most?” most of the respondents chose “Medical devices that transmit body data to you and/or a caregiver.” Nearly two out of five people chose this option, or 38%.
This is interesting because the other choices on the list were “Sensor enabled wrist wear” (which came in second at 33%), “Headset/eyeglasses” (21%), and “Touch-sensitive textiles/clothing” (8%). At least for the people responding to this survey, they were more interested in a device intended for health or medical applications than a fitness band. And it would appear that they may not be overly concerned about data privacy, because the results indicate the possibility that they want to be able to share their data easily with others, including caregivers.
Again, this is a weak data point given the nature of the survey and the sample (and 40% of them skipped the question entirely), but it points in a clear direction. People appear to want to know more about what’s going on with their bodies, and they want to be able to use this information to get better health and medical care. Helping people live better through wearable Health Tech devices would seem to be a driver for this market.
