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Prescription-only wearables have the potential to be not merely life-changing, but life-critical to those who need them. Such devices are already known to be especially effective at monitoring chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes or epilepsy in ‘real time’, sending notifications and alerts every time the wearer enters a ‘danger zone’.

While many of these medical grade wearables start as single purpose devices (such as, for instance, the

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Wearables to assess, advise and improve health and wellbeing has long been one of the key use cases of the technology. Now, here’s a new idea which has come out of Google: a health-tracking wristband which is prescribed to patients or used for clinical trials.

As reported by Bloomberg the device, which is...

Fitbit retains the number one position in the global wearable device market, but is under stiff competition from Chinese-based firm Xiaomi, according to the latest numbers from IDC.

The figures represent a stark closing in on Fitbit’s market dominance. The San Francisco-based company punts out 34.2% of the 11.4 million wearables shipped in the first quarter of 2015, compared with Xiaomi’s 2.8 million (24.6%).

Xiaomi’s first wearable device was announced in July 2014, which naturally...

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It’s official: San Francisco-based fitness wearable manufacturer Fitbit is preparing to go public.

The documents, issued on May 7, reveal a company which is, on the surface, in good health; quarterly revenue tripling year over year, from $108.8m in Q114 to $336.8m in Q115. The number of paid users has also rocketed comparatively; from 2.6m at the end of 2013, to 6.7m the same time the year after, and 9.5m by the end of Q115, while device numbers have grown from 4.5m to 10.9m...

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The analysts at Juniper Research have gotten the tea leaves and crystal ball out again, and predicted annual revenues from connected healthcare and fitness services will approach $2bn by 2019, almost six times the value estimated for this year.

The findings, which appear in the report “Smart Wireless Devices: CE, Enterprise, Fitness, Healthcare, Payments 2015-2019”, examine the prevalence and market value of ‘smart wearable devices’, which Juniper defines as...

Wearables are taking off thanks to how they help to keep a track on our health and can offer small tips and prompts which can make a huge difference to our personal wellbeing. In fact, just yesterday we posted an article about how they are expected to help us predict major disease outbreaks.

Mango Health, which has executives from both the mobile and...

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Everyone was either showing off hardware, or discussing the future of wearable devices at Mobile World Congress this year. Smartwatches took most of the attention, but was stalked by some impressive VR headsets from a range of manufacturers...

Huawei

Huawei somewhat stole the show with their smartwatch unveil. The manufacturer is often known for great smartphones which often undercut the...

The fitness industry is driving wearable adoption, as the success of devices such as Fitbit proves. In fact, on-stage at MWC we heard from Fitbit's Vice President, Gareth Jones, about how their range are breaking into a market which has been reserved to early-adopters through partnerships such as that with WeightWatchers.

So far, these trackers have focused on things like heart rate and perspiration. The most important part of a person's wellbeing, however, is their mental state. No-one wants to...

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Does your workout routine and calorie intake impact your purchasing decisions? Under Armour and many other athletic and lifestyle brands are betting that it does. That’s why they recently invested heavily in a number of fitness apps, like Endomondo and MyFitnessPal. It’s just another example of how every company is adopting technical aspects in order stay relevant.

Ultimately, Under...

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Over the past 18 months we have witnessed a sharp rise in the popularity of wearable technology, particularly in fitness and activity trackers. Medical Director of the NHS, Sir Bruce Keogh, recently told The Guardian how such wearables could eventually revolutionise the healthcare industry. With the public fitness habit intensifying and the technology growing more...