The global wearable technology market, worth only $750
million back in 2012, has maintained its show stopping growth pattern this
year, spurred on by the planet’s biggest tech companies continuing to vie for
the pole position in an ongoing race to become the dominant developer of what
is seen as essentially the next mobile phone market. Transparency Market
Research recently projected a forward CAGR of over 40 percent through 2018 for
the space and leading tech-focused market research, analysis and advisory firm,
International Data Corporation, estimates that more than 72 million units will
ship by this year’s close, a whopping 173 percent jump over last year’s figure,
and this figure is seen by IDC as growing to over 155 million units by 2019, on
a CAGR of 42.6 percent.
One of the companies pushing the hardest is Intel (NASDAQ:
INTC), which bought up Canadian high-tech sports eyewear maker Recon earlier
this year. Intel even announced at its recent developer’s forum that the latest
iteration of its America’s Greatest Makers contest will have its own long
format reality TV show starting early next year.
The world’s biggest chip maker pumping the public for ideas
clearly shows how aggressive the wearables game has become and even NASA is now
leaning on the public in this way, running a contest to develop a smartwatch
app for astronauts on the ISS using the Samsung (OTC: SSNLF) Gear 2 as a
reference device for designs. This after units of Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT)
augmented reality headset, HoloLens, never made it to the ISS, as they were
lost earlier this year during the failed CRS-7 Falcon 9 resupply mission by
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) founder Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
According to emerging technology-focused independent market
research and business intelligence firm IDTechEx, one of the big trends in
wearables is the continuing efflorescence of advanced informatics as wearable
electronics. This trend will naturally expand the footprint of wearables in the
healthcare market considerably, with truly disruptive implementations in areas
such as e-textiles promising billion dollar sales potential, especially for
devices that capture the right mix of data capture, communication, and overall
functionality. We are already seeing some of the first truly compelling fruits
of this race, with companies like Philips (NYSE: PHG) Healthcare teaming up
with Google (NASDAQ: GOOG; GOOGL) to merge Philips IntelliVue Solutions
technologies with Google Glass, transferring real-time data directly to the
eyepiece so that doctors can have a persistent HUD (heads-up display) feeding
them patient vital signs, all without ever having to take their eyes off the
procedure.
Philips, which developed the IntelliVue MX40 wearable
patient monitor that can display real-time patient vital signs on its color
touchscreen and yet is light and small enough for ambulatory patients to
comfortably wear, has also teamed up with Accenture (NYSE: ACN) in order to
fuse together big data and wearable tech in a solution targeted primarily at
ALS patients. The proof of concept solution from Philips and Accenture ties
together a wearable display with the Emotiv Insight Brainware, a 5-channel
wireless headset that records brainwaves, resulting in a device that could
provide a great deal of independence to ALS sufferers, as well as others with
neurodegenerative diseases. There is a great deal of potential for real-time
patient monitoring devices like this and the success of systems like the
LifeWatch, a mobile phone connected remote cardiac monitoring wearable from the
subsidiary of Switzerland-based telemedicine products and services provider
LifeWatch AG (OTC: LFWWF), is a good indicator of how mobile-enabled healthcare
wearables that can be used to safeguard lives will fare in coming years.
A new report out from Global Industry Analysts published by
Research and Markets, indicates just how attractive the wearable medical device
segment of the market is, with a 2020 projection of some $4.5 billion. One of
the smaller and much more investor-accessible companies at the forefront of
this segment is GTX Corp. (OTC: GTXO), developer of the patented GPS
SmartSole®, which sits invisibly inside a piece of footwear and allows for
real-time tracking of patients who have a tendency to wander, such as those
with Alzheimer’s, dementia, autism, and TBI. Recently showcased in Munich at
the Telefonica Digital Innovation Day 2015 and featured in AARP’s 2015
technology gear guide, the SmartSole even beat out Samsung’s Gear S at the 2015
CTIA “Hot for the Holidays” Super Mobility Awards in the Wearables, Health,
Fitness and Wellness category, coming in second only to Microsoft’s smartwatch
with heart rate monitor, the Microsoft Band.
Applications for the SmartSole however run far and wide
beyond just healthcare. The device is quickly gaining ground in a variety of
tracking roles, such as real-time monitoring of high value assets like foreign
diplomats and other government employees, as well as high level executives.
Former NFL pro Jack Brewer, who got his start with the Minnesota Vikings and was
known as one of the top defensive backs and special teams players in the
league, playing key leadership roles for the New York Giants and the
Philadelphia Eagles before going on to found and be the CEO of The Brewer Group
Companies, has even officially endorsed the SmartSole in this capacity. Brewer,
whose career and charitable work constantly takes him all over the globe, uses
the SmartSole as a way for family and colleagues to easily track his
whereabouts, as well as view a detailed real-time trail of where he has been
using the GTX Smart Locator app.
The SmartSole is an ingenious design, powerful enough to
satisfy all the demands that consumers place upon such a solution, yet
surreptitious enough to avoid the stigma cognitive impairment sufferers may experience,
as well as detection by would-be kidnappers.
For more information, visit www.gtxcorp.com
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