Each year in January and July, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) publishes its U.S. Consumer Technology Sales and Forecasts report. The CTA released its latest report on January 5, 2020 at the CES 2020 show in Las Vegas. For the first time, the CTA’s projections broke out device numbers and sales total for digital health devices.
Of the overall $422 billion in retail consumer technology sales in 2020, digital health devices will account for 64 million devices and $10 billion in revenue, according to the CTA. The forecast includes smartwatches and fitness trackers, plus connected health monitoring devices such as blood pressure monitors and smart weight scales.
At a little less than 2.4% of all consumer tech spending, digital health tech sales may seem almost inconsequential, especially when the CTA expects software and streaming services including music, video, and video gaming to produce $81.2 billion in revenues in 2020. On the other hand, the CTA projects only $8.5 billion in sales from smart home devices and smart speakers; this is $1.5 billion less than the digital health tech forecast.
The CTA figures represent consumer spending only, not sales to medical or wellness practices and institutions. If an insurance company decides to buy tens of thousands of fitness trackers to issue to policyholders, for example, those sales wouldn’t be counted in the CTA numbers. Devices prescribed and supplied by a medical or wellness professionals would also be excluded from the CTA count. As we’ve said repeatedly here in recent years, we see many of these devices as moving to the enterprise markets as they become integral parts of corporate and healthcare system programs.
Recognition of the growth of digital health devices sales to consumers will help attract funding for development efforts and raise awareness for this significant market segment.
