With integration of advanced technologies such as AI, ML and IoT, fitness wearables are gaining rapid adoption in the multi-trillion dollar U.S. healthcare industry.
The primary reason behind these devices gaining traction is growing awareness of fitness and thus, the need to monitor one’s health.
Per a report from ResearchandMarkets, global smart wearable market is expected to see a CAGR of 19.38% between 2019 and 2024. Notably, smartwatch comprises the most crucial segment of the market.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has been a dominant force in this space courtesy its Watch family. Recently, the iPhone maker launched Apple Watch Series-5 with always-on retina display, and currently covers Apple Hearing Study, Apple Women’s Health Study and Apple Heart & Movement Study.
Further, the watch is based on watchOS 6, which comes with additional healthcare and fitness features like Cycle Tracking, the Noise app and Activity Trends.
Apple Watch Dominating Smartwatch Market
According to Allied Market Research report, the worldwide smartwatch market is anticipated to reach $31.1 billion by 2025 at a CAGR of 16.2% starting from 2018.
The recently launched Apple Watch 5 strengthens this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company’s competitive prowess in the smartwatch space.
Last year, the company launched Apple Watch Series 4, which had built-in electrocardiogram (ECG) reader, accelerometer and gyroscope. While ECG reader helps in detecting an atrial fibrillation, accelerometer and gyroscope tracks the wrist trajectory and impact acceleration, respectively.
Moreover, Apples expanding Watch portfolio is reinforcing its market position. Per data from Strategy Analytics, 5.7 million units of smartwatches were shipped during second-quarter 2019 with the iPhone maker holding the leading position with 46.4% market share.
Year-to-Date Price Performance
Intensifying Competition
However, competitors like Fitbit (NYSE:FIT) , Samsung (KS:005930), Garmin (NASDAQ:GRMN) and Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google are also making every effort to capitalize on this market.
Fitbit recently launched Versa 2 edition of smartwatch. Notably, Fitbit Versa 2 is equipped with smart sleep features like – Sleep Score, Smart wake, Sleep Mode and estimated oxygen variation graph, and more advanced health, fitness and smart features.
The Zacks Rank #3 company remains well-poised to rapidly proliferate the healthcare industry driven by its huge portfolio of fitness tracker product portfolio. This also includes Fitbit Charge 3 that provides better healthcare management with its advanced 24/7 PurePulse heart rate technology and SpO2 sensor.
Meanwhile, Garmin rolled out vivoactive 4 and 4S GPS smartwatches, which feature advanced sleep tracking , respiration tracking, Body Battery energy monitoring, women cycle tracking, stress tracking with relax reminders and hydration tracking. These watches also provide abnormal heartrate alerts.
Additionally, the company also introduced vivomove 3/3S, vivomove Style and vivomove Luxe, which are well-equipped with health wellness features. Further, the Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company introduced a GPS smartwatch with AMOLED screen named Venu that provides valuable health insights and is capable of 24/7 health monitoring. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Moreover, Samsung is rapidly penetrating the fitness tracking smartwatch space with its expanding family of Galaxy Watch.
Meanwhile, Google is also gaining traction in this particular space with its Wear OS operating system, which can be synchronized with Google Fit and other health apps. Notably, Google’s parent Alphabet carries a Zacks Rank #2.
Consequently, growing initiatives by the abovementioned companies are intensifying competition in this space.
Conclusion
In fact, the emergence of advanced technologies is revolutionizing the healthcare space.
Apart from Apple, tech companies like Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) are also trying to strengthen their healthcare footprint on the back of their AI, ML, AR/VR and data analytics initiatives.
Moreover, strong push by tech behemoths toward personal health monitoring, medical supplies, medical records maintenance and pharmacy advancement is expected to intensify competition in the healthcare industry.
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Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL): Free Stock Analysis Report
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