More than 100,000 mHealth apps are currently available on the iOS and Android platforms, double the number that were available in 2012, according to a new report, "mHealth App Developer Economics 2014."
The apps currently on the market target people with chronic conditions (31 percent), people interested in general wellness or fitness (28 percent) and practicing physicians (14 percent).
The average mHealth app developer has released seven apps. The majority of developers have three to 10 (23 percent) or 11 to 100 (23 percent) employees.
However, the vast majority of apps, and developers, see modest success. Most (82 percent) of developers saw a total of less than 50,000 downloads across all their apps last year. A majority (68 percent) made less than $10,000 in revenue, while the top 5 percent of developers bring in more than $1 million per year. These top developers generally have a larger portfolio, utilize connections to sensors and outside medical databases, have more sophisticated development tools and more experience in the market and focus more on the iOS platform.
In the next five years, the main market drivers will be the increasingly ubiquitous nature of mobile devices and user demand.
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