The mHealth App Developer Economics 2015, which has been conducted for the fifth time this year is the largest global study on mHealth app publishing. It focuses on the current status of the mHealth app market and provides an outlook of market trends over the next five years. The research program answers several important questions, who is behind the 165,000 mHealth apps, what are app publishers’ goals, how do they perform and which trends are they expecting to emerge over the next 5 years? This year more than 5,000 mHealth practitioners, representing more than 10,000 mHealth apps, have participated sharing their experiences and views on the market.
Zuzana Vranova, Senior Research Analyst at research2guidance says: "Compared to last year the number of participating mHealth practitioners has more than doubled. This indicates the growing interest in mHealth app publishing."
There is still a lot of hype around mHealth apps evidenced by the growing number of new market entries and an increase in investments pouring into the market. In fact half (54%) of the mHealth app publishers have only recently (post-2013) entered the market.
mHealth publishers are "growing up" in terms of their company size as well as their "maturity" by involving medical professionals. A typical company now has up to 100 employees, and the garage type of "the owners develop themselves" company has decreased in relevance from 15% last year to 8% this year. The share of corporates with more than 5,000 employees has however increased from 13% to 17%.
The mHealth app market is very unique and differs significantly from other app categories in what companies want to get out of their engagement. 53% of mHealth publishers claim that their main motivation is to help people improve their medical conditions. Despite this mainly altruistic attitude, 60% of mHealth app publishers say that they have not been able to reach their goals yet. Low reach is one of the main reason why mHealth app publishers are not there yet.
Ralf Gordon Jahns, the Managing Director of research2guidance says: "Many of the companies started to develop an app to improve their own health condition or that of a friend or relative. Because of that they really understood the user's needs. If those start-ups get their software right and learn how to market their apps, they will become the new "Facebooks" of healthcare."
Chronically ill patients and hospitals are target groups number one and two respectively for the majority of mHealth app publishers today. Physicians are also ranked high but their importance has dropped since last year by 9%.
Tool usage in general among mHealth app publishers has dropped little since last year. The biggest losers however are cross platform tools (-9%) and ad networks (-7%).
mHealth apps, when the publishers get it right, are helping the user to change their behavior and mHealth app publishers have a clear understanding of what works and what doesn’t. Gamification for example is not seen as a user engagement strategy that works for mHealth. On the other hand mHealth app publishers rank any integration of HCP feedback or dialogue into the app high in terms of its impact on changing the behavior of the user.
Read the full report to see all results. Download the free 35 page report here http://research2guidance.com/product/mhealth-developer-economics-2015/
About research2guidance
research2guidance is a Berlin-based mobile app economy specialist. The company's service offerings include app strategy consulting, market studies and research.